ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection
by A New Username
Summary: That was the turning point. Looking back on it now, that was the exact moment of the exact day that my walk – no, sprint down the path towards recollection began. I didn't know it then, but that was the first step to remembering who I was… And becoming who I am. (Sequel to Gun Gale Online: The Swordswoman/Transcendent Bonds, female Kirito, same pairings apply)
1. I-I: Moving Forward Alone

Alfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Chapter One: Moving Forward Alone

* * *

**Author's Note**

**And the story of the swordswoman of Gun Gale Online continues. To those of you who were expecting another chapter to the work that started it all, **_**Gun Gale Online: The Swordswoman**_**, I'm sorry. That story is on hiatus for the time being, and if I do continue, I might just do a rewrite of it that starts right after Kiriko leaves Klein, and continues onward without any of the major timeskips featured in the original.**

**So, about this story. This is the sequel to **_**Gun Gale Online: the Swordswoman**_**. Or, at least, to one of the possible endings of the initial story that I have planned. There is actually another story that takes place in between, but I might not get to it for a while.**

**As per the usual with my stories, these warnings will apply:**

**Female Kirito. That's a damn given by now.**

**Yuri romance included. Anyone who wants a straight female Kirito will be severely disappointed by this fic. Homophobes are not welcome here.**

**This one isn't very typical for me. This story is the sequel to a story that I have not finished. As such, it could contain some spoilers. Luckily, you won't see most of them for a while because of the way I set the premise up.**

**You'll see what I mean. See you at the bottom!**

* * *

When someone suffers a major setback or loss, people will often tell them not to turn back. To keep moving forward. Whether they make take that advice is up to them.

That's where they're lucky.

For me, there is no turning back. There just simply isn't anything to turn back to, no matter how much I wish there was. No matter how much _everyone_ wishes there was. There's nothing there. The only semblance of a past I have to remember is one year, and even most of that is hazy.

But even so, I move forward. Even with all my setbacks, even though I went through so much just to relearn even the most basic of things, I keep moving onward, never looking back.

After all, what's the point of turning back when there's nowhere to go but forward?

* * *

"You worry too much," I teased the person on the other end of the phone line. A moment later, I spoke again. "Don't worry, I'm fine. My rehab is done, I don't need anyone here anymore except for Shadow."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know I'll have to go to school eventually. I just don't want to have to start over, that's all. I don't know where I was at, but it'd just be embarrassing if I had to start back at middle school or something. I'm seventeen, for crying out loud!"

A few moments later, my anger had subsided and was replaced with curiosity. "A tutor? I guess that's a thought. Just give me some time to sit on it, all right?"

I smiled, though I knew the person on the other end couldn't see it. "Thanks. I love you, too. Bye!"

_Click_

I put my cellphone in the pocket of my dark gray, baggy jeans, standing up from my soft, black leather chair. Walking the few steps needed to close the distance between me and my closet, I opened it and pulled out a black denim jacket, putting it on over my dark gray t-shirt with a slight struggle. Even if I had graduated from in-home rehab, I didn't have too much strength built up yet.

"I need to get some reading in," I whispered to myself, releasing a sigh as I walked across my wooden floor towards the front door. "And some fresh air couldn't hurt, either."

* * *

The automated jingle of simulated bells rang through the speakers above me as I nonchalantly walked through the open door of my favorite manga and game shop. It was a small, quiet place run by a fat man in his mid-twenties with scruffy facial hair and an outwardly grouchy personality.

_He's a good guy, though,_ I gave him his due credit in my mind as I laxly sauntered over to the section of the store that housed the young adult manga. I heard a soft song playing through the speakers placed in strategic locations throughout the store, though the auto-tuned voice of the singer undoubtedly belonged to a Vocaloid, as per the usual with this place.

_Though the songs he plays are usually more bouncy than this…_

It didn't take me long to find the book I started the day before; I deliberately put it in the wrong spot on the shelf so it would stand out. I picked it off the shelf, looking at the title just to make sure. It read,

_Gun Gale Online_

_As Told by the Survivors_

_Volume 5: Game-Changer_

This was the most recent volume, and its series served as the only window I had to my past. Even if my memories of that time were gone, those of the other survivors would forever remain engraved in their minds; that much was certain.

Putting the book in my left hand, I reached into my jacket pocket with my right, pulling out a piece of memo paper. Various numbers were written and crossed out in messy scrawl, increasing as the list went down. I stopped at the last number, the only one with no line through it to tell me it was obsolete.

I24 – the page I left off on yesterday. I didn't really need to write it down; I remembered the number instinctively, as always. But after what apparently happened to me, I didn't want to leave anything to chance. I wrote everything I needed to remember down on various memo pads, from the pages of books I had stopped on, to the time that my physical rehab therapist used to come to my home.

I opened up the manga volume, leafing through its intricately-drawn pages until I reached my desired page. Unfortunately, I didn't get to read a single line of dialogue before a rude interruption made me snap the book closed in an instant.

"Oi, freeloader!" the chubby, bearded man behind the counter called out to me, his gruff tone matching his appearance perfectly.

"What's up, chubs?" my reference to his stature didn't go unnoticed by him as I turned and walked over to the display case of a counter, the manga volume still in my hands.

When I reached the counter, he looked no angrier than before; if anything, he looked calm. His unusual blue eyes hadn't any malice in them, and his cheeks lacked the irritated frown that would normally contort his blond beard. In other words, something was seriously strange with him.

_For once, he isn't putting up the 'angry manager' act for me,_ I mused as I looked him over. His attire, too, had changed; his usual, unfashionable bright green t-shirt had been replaced by a loose-fitting sky-blue shirt that slightly lessened his rather corpulent appearance.

I couldn't see anything else of him behind the counter, so I decided to end my analysis of his rather strangely-timed image change. Once he took notice that I had ceased looking him over, he began to speak in a slightly curious tone, another first in my few months knowing him. He had always tried to sound irritated with me before, even after we became acquainted with each other and got on good terms.

"Your cousin isn't with you today?" he asked me; though his tone had changed, his curt speech patterns remained the same.

I tried to refrain from wincing; when we first introduced ourselves, I had made the excuse that my in-home rehab therapist was my cousin to prevent any awkward situations from arising. Even so, I still felt kind of bad for lying to him, as I had ever since we became somewhat akin to friends.

"Ah…" I rubbed the back of my head with my free hand, trying to ease my nerves. "He went back to where he lives, since he decided to finally get a job instead of live with me all the time."

Another lie spun into my web of previous deceptions. However, the manager, who I knew by the nickname, 'Sel', didn't appear to notice my unease. If he did, he didn't point it out; he was always the type that could sense when not to pry.

"Really, now," Sel more stated than asked, his expression changing ever-so-slightly into one that I had identified as his personal version of surprise. "That's good for him."

At this point, I could no longer contain myself. "Just how many contradictions are you going to make with your character?" I asked him in a no-nonsense tone.

This seemed to snap him back to his reality – the reality that he was dealing with his most frequent visitor, yet also most unprofitable customer. His face remained the same, but his demeanor and tone changed drastically.

"Excuse me. I've been a bit too bouncy today," he explained with a rub to the back of his neck, only arising more questions from within me.

"Why?" I queried, though I doubted he would answer me.

"That book," he pointed to the volume of _Gun Gale_ in my left hand, then pointed to the counter in front of him. "Put it up here."

Thinking he was going to take it from me, but also not wanting to get kicked out, I reluctantly placed it on the counter – though it was really just the top of the glass display case where he kept some of his more popular games. He eyed it for no more than a second before turning back to me with an almost sympathetic expression.

_He's so out of character today, it's not even funny._

"That's what I thought," he sighed. "Ever since you first came here, that's all you've ever read about – that disaster of a VRMMO, _Gun Gale Online_."

"What of it?" My tone held no malice – no real emotions got through when I talked about the incident with someone. Most of them told me I needed to _remember_, and I had found that the best defense was to lose my emotions until they stopped.

_But_, I reminded myself after studying his contemplative face. _He wouldn't do that. He doesn't even know that I'm a survivor._

"The wife's finally out of the hospital," he stated out of the blue. From what I gathered, his wife was a survivor of GGO, just as I was – the difference would be that she undoubtedly _remembered_ everything about her time in the game. The thought made me slightly jealous.

His occasional mentions of his wife in his chats with my "cousin" led me to believe that his wife had suffered some kind of stroke when the game was cleared, and she fell into a coma. If she had gotten out of the hospital, then that would mean she had woken up and been through rehab. Even her waking up was news to me.

After a short pause, he continued. "She's a survivor of the incident, you see. She plans to run the shop with me once she's finished with the in-home rehab."

I could already see where this was going, but I waited for him to prove my hypothesis. If I was right, I would be out my one source of solace that carried me through each boring day.

"You're a smart kid, I can tell." This was the first time he had complimented me with no sarcasm, so it caught me slightly off guard. "I'm sure I don't have to explain why, but you can imagine that she probably wouldn't appreciate a person who buys nothing and just sits all day and reads about the source of her trauma."

"So I'm not allowed to come here anymore?"

This assumption of mine, if true, was a double-edged sword. I would be out my one source of entertainment and self-knowledge, sure, but… if I stayed, then the consequences might be much, much worse.

"_How could you forget about me?!"_

"_Please, you have to remember!"_

These words, along with the one who shouted them at me, flashed through my mind for the faintest of moments, putting a bitter expression on me for their duration.

"No, I'm not gonna shoo you away just like that." He must have mistook my dark look's cause for the more outwardly obvious – that I didn't want to leave. His next question came as quite the surprise.

"You're at least a little curious about virtual reality, right?"

My eyes widened as my bitter frown vanished, all of my thoughts blown away at his question. "A-a little, I guess," were the only words I could manage.

"Thought so," he said, bending down until all I could see was his back to grab something below the display case. With a grunt, he stood back up, a thin, rectangular game box in his right hand. He gently dropped it on the counter in front of me, allowing me to study it.

The cover art depicted two oddly-clothed people floating in the air in the forefront of a scene of several trees where each and every leaf had as much realistic detail as possible for the small picture scaling of the box cover. Above the trees was a beautiful depiction of a cloudy night sky, with a full moon that somehow looked breathtakingly realistic in the center.

None of those things seemed as strange as the odd, leaf-like shapes of red and green that seemed to originate from the backs of the people on the right and left, respectively. It took me a moment, but eventually, I started to piece together what they were – or, at least, what they were supposed to be.

Wings.

Once I made that connection, it was impossible to look away. Why did they have wings? And wings of colored light, at that? What was this picture depicting?

Before I could ask myself any more questions, the box was slid backwards by the hand that obscured my view of it. I looked up to find Sel looking at me with a knowing smirk.

"It's called, 'Alfheim'," he informed me, picking the box up and pointing to the title at the bottom-center, the one thing I had yet to take in. "Alfheim Online. It's the new thing, a VRMMO that's been proven safe to play. A friend sent it to me as a sick practical joke."

He held it out in front of me, waiting until I began to reach for it before speaking. "I'll cut you a deal," he said, waving the box up and down in front of me. "You take it off my hands, free of charge."

"And what do you want in return?" I didn't believe for a second that the price would be cheap, even if – no, _especially_ if it didn't involve money.

"If you want it, there are two choices you can make," he answered me, holding up his index and middle finger right in front of the game box. "One: you stop coming here entirely." One finger went down. "Or two: you make sure that, whenever my wife's running the shop with me, you don't pull out a single volume of _Gun Gale_, even for a second."

"Option two," I said in a heartbeat. I felt bad, though; I was lying to him again.

_Because as soon as she gets here, I'll never come back._

* * *

I locked the front door of my house from behind me, taking off my shoes and slipping into my house slippers on the edge of the plain, gray entry rug.

Gray. Gray, white and black. Everything in my house, whether it be the floor, the blinds, the furniture, or even the lightbulbs of the lamps, everything lacked the presence of the color that gave a house life.

I had no pictures in my house; there was no one to take them with. I lived alone after I was released from the hospital-based rehab, having moved away to avoid my apparent sister's constant attempts to get me to remember her. The only contact I had with the people who used to be my family consisted of periodic phone calls with my mom, who seemed to be the only level-headed person that the old me knew.

I was alone, save for the few people who I met in this suburban place and the man in his mid-twenties that came over occasionally for in-home rehab. But, as of yesterday, even that presence had disappeared.

I had no one to share close moments with, no one to help me up when I fell down. But I liked it that way.

_After all, what good are you if you can't stand on your own two feet?_

I opened my eyes as I felt the all-too familiar feeling of something rubbing against my legs. I looked down to find my gray tabby cat, an adolescent female named Shadow that I found as a kitten shortly after moving into this house, nuzzling against me in what seemed like a plea for my attention.

I knelt down to give her some loving as thanks for his true efforts. Scratching behind her ears gently, I tenderly whispered, "You're psychic, aren't you, kitty? You always come when I'm starting to get depressed."

She meowed in what I knew to be affirmation of the latter part of my claim. Okay, so she wasn't really psychic, but she could sense a person with low spirits a kilometer away and immediately come bounding over to comfort them. It was a miracle, in a sense, that I found her when I moved here.

It seems I wasn't alone, after all.

"Let's get you some dinner, hmm?" I suggested as I slowly stood up, watching as Shadow walked towards the kitchen at my mention of dinner.

I stayed still for a moment, watching as my faithful cat stopped in her tracks and turned around to face me. Was that an act of loyalty, or was she just stopping to make sure I followed through and got her some food?

I was in an optimistic mood, so I decided to believe the former.

* * *

_So this is what did it, huh?_

The object in question sat in a large, square cardboard box that I had just pulled out from under my bed and opened for the first time since it had been filled. I had but a vague idea of what it looked like beforehand, though I had seen it before. About a year ago, in fact. But then, that's exactly why I had no recollection of its appearance.

_Because my mind as it is now is really only a year old. The moment I woke up one year ago, I had none of the knowledge, the memories, or anything else that was within the mind of Kirigaya Kimiko. And yet…_

"_How could you forget about me?!"_

"_Please, just try to remember me!"_

"_You have to remember! You just _have_ to!"_

"Shut up! Just shut up, all of you! Leave me alone!"

I clutched my head as the scared, angry, frantic, _hysteric_ voices of so many people shouting at me to remember them swam through my racing mind. I grit my teeth as wave after wave of pain pulsed through my head, like jolts of electricity that spiked with every shouted word that flashed through my jumbled mind, each one louder than the last.

My eyes shut tight as the shouts and shocking sensations continued to ravage my brain, tears brought up by pain leaking from the corners of my clenched eyelids.

_Please… no more!_

"_Kiriko… you don't have to be alone anymore."_

And then, in an instant, everything stopped. The voices silenced themselves, the pain vanished, and my thoughts returned to normal speed. It left me with no energy, and I nearly collapsed to the ground before I hurriedly put my arms out in front of me to break my fall.

My breathing was ragged, my heart still pounding erratically, but slowly, they too, were returning to normal. My eyes slowly opened and I looked into the opened cardboard box once more, blinking away the blurriness and tears.

Inside the box, on top of some bubble wrap to keep it intact, rested a smooth, dark, grayish blue, helmet-like device. It had a transparent, dark green visor that would undoubtedly cover a wearer's eyes and then some.

I picked it up with my hands, its weight dispelling the last of their residual tremors. As I raised it up to my face, a cord connected to the back began to rise with it. This was the device that trapped me, the device that somehow led to the loss of my memories.

The Nerve Gear.

The mere thought that I might be using it again soon should have sent shivers of fear down my spine. And yet, contrary to anything I would have expected, the weight and feel headset in my hands excited me, as if I had just got in line for a scary, yet incredibly thrilling roller coaster ride. It made no sense, but I had no intention of dwelling on it.

I turned it around, finding a groove on the top of the head, slightly towards the back. I put my right hand up to it and pried it gently, watching as a compartment slid open and revealed an empty slot for a game.

_Of course they would have taken the cartridge for SAO out,_ I mused. I had no memory of it, but I had apparently been told that when the doctors tried to take it from me, I latched onto it and wouldn't let it go until they agreed not to take it and destroy it. _I don't really know why they let me keep it in the end, though. Maybe they were just showing sympathy for a teenage girl with the mind of an infant, but it still seems kinda strange._

I set the Nerve Gear and its cord down to the right of the large, cardboard box, next to another box – the game box for Alfheim Online. I figured that if the cartridge for ALO fit inside the Nerve Gear without any trouble, then they would most likely be compatible. If not, then I would have to ask my mom to send me some money so that I could buy the hardware stated to be required on the box, the AmuSphere. Of course, I wouldn't tell her that that's what I would be using the money for.

I opened the box for ALO, taking out a cartridge that had a miniature depiction of the people on the cover of the box as a sticker on the front. I turned it around in my hand, looking it over before putting it next to the empty slot in the nerve gear to compare the size.

_It looks like it'll fit perfectly,_ I hypothesized. I waited a few moments before inserting the cartridge, listening with satisfaction as it slid smoothly in until a _click_ could be heard as it finally locked into place.

I smiled, heart racing as I slid the compartment shut over the inserted game. Everything was going perfectly; there was only a bit more left to do before I could experience a taste of what the original, true Kirigaya Kimiko experienced in Gun Gale Online.

Of course, the risk of death would no longer be a part of the package. This somehow brought less comfort to me than I thought it would. It's almost like a part of me believed that even if death _was_ a possibility, I would have no need to worry, like I was strong enough that it didn't even matter.

I entertained that stray thought for no more than an instant. Whatever happened in that came, I didn't come away unscathed. Though I didn't die in the physical sense, there was another part of me, the Kirigaya Kimiko that everyone else knew, that was left behind in that world.

So, in a way, you could say that I died a year ago, and the Kimiko now is nothing more than a baby born from the ashes the original left behind.

_That's enough,_ I reprimanded myself. I could hear Shadow pawing at my closed bedroom door, so I knew my emotions must have been intense enough for him to read from wherever he was in the house. _You've got to stop this. You're making Shadow worry._

I took a few deep breaths, calming myself until I heard the pawing at my door, and the faint sound of my cat padding away. He thought I was okay again, and that's what mattered.

I picked up the Nerve Gear and grabbed its cord, walking over to the bed in the corner of the room farthest from the window. Setting the headset on my white pillow and plugging its cord into the wall outlet beside my bed for internet connection, I moved the light gray blanket aside.

A few moments later, I was all set up. The Nerve Gear was on my head, the battery icon in the corner of its visor showing the charging symbol after having run dry due to prolonged rest. My body was under the covers so as to protect me from the cold, laying down in a comfortable position on my back.

Despite everything being just fine so far, my heart wouldn't stop racing. It already felt as if I were doing something exciting in the world of Alfheim Online, like flying. That sounded really fun.

In my excitement, I almost forgot what to do next. It took me a few seconds to calm my nerves enough to remember what I had read off of the back of the game box for ALO.

_So, what I say is…_

Somehow, before I remembered from the box, I already found myself instinctively uttering the exact phrase needed.

"Link Start!"

That was the turning point. Looking back on it now, that was the exact moment of the exact day that my walk – no, sprint down the path towards recollection began. I didn't know it then, but that was the first step to remembering who I was…

And becoming who I am.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**What do you think of that? If you want the truth, this isn't the first draft of the chapter. The original was shorter, not finished, lacked decent description, and had no emotional depth. I took a look at the first draft about twelve hours ago, and I immediately started making this out of it.**

**This was probably one of the longest chapters I've written in ages, and it had one of my best times in recent months, to boot. I'm impressed with even myself here.**

**Anyway, I'd love some thoughts on this. Preferable ones that actually last more than one line, if you would be so inclined.**

**I guess that's all for now. See you all next chapter**


	2. I-II: Unconditional

Alfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Chapter Two: Unconditional

* * *

**Author's Note**

**And so it continues. I remember taking about a month or two before publishing chapter two of the original **_**Gun Gale Online: The Swordswoman**_**. Compared to that, this is fast, I suppose.**

**I'm trying my damnedest to pace myself right now. This chapter was finished at around 8 p.m. on 2/19/15, but I've decided to wait a day, or at least until I finish chapter three (whichever comes first) to publish it. This author's note is basically here to inform you of that, as well as to acknowledge some mistakes pointed out in chapter one.**

**First off, Shadow the cat was intended to be a male at first. That's why there are so many times that I refer to the little kitty in both genders. Apologies to those of you whom this confused.**

**Second, someone pointed out that I mistakenly referred to GGO's VRMMO cartridge as the cartridge for SAO, which is a 2D MMO in this universe. You can blame that one on a mind deprived of proper rest, as I both finished and published the first chapter after two in the morning.**

**Well, I think that's it for now. See you at the bottom, should you make it that far.**

* * *

_A few moments later, I was all set up. The Nerve Gear was on my head, the battery icon in the corner of its visor showing the charging symbol after having run dry due to prolonged rest. My body was under the covers so as to protect me from the cold, laying down in a comfortable position on my back._

_Despite everything being just fine so far, my heart wouldn't stop racing. It already felt as if I were doing something exciting in the world of Alfheim Online, like flying. That sounded really fun._

_In my excitement, I almost forgot what to do next. It took me a few seconds to calm my nerves enough to remember what I had read off of the back of the game box for ALO._

So, what I say is…

_Somehow, before I remembered from the box, I already found myself instinctively uttering the exact phrase needed._

_"Link Start!"_

* * *

Not a second after my activating shout, I found myself in a rather odd room, with pictures of various backgrounds as walls. The floor looked like a bottomless pit of black, making it appear as if I were standing in the middle of an endless void.

In the middle of the room, a large, circular platform made of dark gray stone with slanted rims stood before me. A keyboard of sorts was engraved onto the slanted rim, right in front of me.

I just stood there for a moment, in awe of everything's amazing detail. _And this isn't even the world of ALO…_

After a few more moments of just standing around, I heard a voice reverberate throughout the entire void of a room, seeming to originate from everywhere at once.

"_Welcome to «Alfheim Online»,"_ the automated female voice sounded out from all around me. _"Please walk forward."_

I took that as the cue I needed to start the process. I walked up to the keyboard, noticing a holographic window hovering just above the surface. It depicted a circle with nine, evenly-spaced-apart circles strung around it. Each circle was a different color, making me wonder just what I was supposed to do with this diagram.

Then, all of a sudden, the circles all projected doll-sized humanoid characters on top of them, each with clothing or armor that held the same color as the circles below them. Their characteristics varied between each of the nine, but the common feature amongst all of them was their pointed ears. Even then, the shape of said ears varied greatly, with some being long and thin, to some being almost like perfect triangles.

The voice reverberated throughout the room once more, flat and even as ever. _"On this diagram are basic depictions of the nine player races. In «Alfheim Online», all players will live as fairies of one of these nine races. Your appearance will be randomly generated, though you may later make changes for a fee. The race you choose will affect your location, your stat distribution, your magic specialties, and countless other aspects of your life in the game. Please tap on a race to see more specific details. Once you have made your selection, touch the «Confirm» option on the pad."_

_Fairies… huh? So I'll be living as a fairy? Even though I'd better be suited to a role closer to darkness._

I looked at each of the small fairy people, analyzing their appearances before tapping quickly on the pure black circle option. Not a second later, a life-sized version of the fairy, a young, dark-haired boy in black clothing with little to no armor appeared in the middle of the circular platform. The majority of his body was covered by a cloak, though his whole face was still visible from my current angle.

At his legs, a black window with white text appeared. I read,

_Race: Spriggan_

_The Spriggans are an agile race, with a wide diversity of non-combat skills. Among these are mastery of Illusion Magic, as well as various magic useful in treasure hunting._

_Their black attire and affinity for Illusions makes them perfect for those who value stealth. Night vision adds to this effect. They are also capable of reaching high speeds in flight, helping them evade pursuers if need be._

_Strong Points: Shadow, Illusions, Treasure Hunting_

Without even looking at a single other race, I knew this one was the perfect fit. _They're fast, they have stealth and night vision, and… they're masters of illusions. What better race for a person whose very existence is a menagerie of hastily yet carefully-crafted illusions that no one else was meant to see through?_

Without hesitation, I tapped on the «Confirm» button. A moment later, the holograms all disappeared at once, leaving the keyboard before me as the only object to interact with.

"_Please enter a name with the keyboard. This name will be your in-game user ID, and your player name as well."_

This was where I felt stumped. What name should I use? I had no idea. I was terrible at coming up with names, and this only served to highlight the problem.

But then, I remembered the words that, not an hour earlier, had soothed my raging mind by calming all the constant screams. It said a name with such kindness that it made me want to hear it again and again. The next choice was obvious.

With the keyboard, I typed a name quickly and without error.

_Kiriko_

When I finished typing, I tapped, «Finish», tapping another confirmation button immediately after. Then, the voice said one, final thing to me.

"_Preparations complete. Welcome, Kiriko, to «Alfheim Online»."_

* * *

Something told me that awakening washed up on a river bank in the middle of a dense, green forest at night was _not_ the way I was supposed to spawn for the first time.

"Mm… what happened?" I whispered, sitting up slowly and rubbing my head—

Only to realize that I felt no pain.

"Oh… right," I reminded myself, moving my hand to the ground to push myself into a standing position. "I'm in a game. Of course I wouldn't feel any pain."

I slowly walked towards the edge of the quietly-flowing brook, taking in the full moon reflected on its beautiful, glassy surface. The water was perfectly clear, allowing me to see all the way to the depths of the river without losing clarity, even without any sunlight.

I decided to focus for a moment on my own reflection. What I saw, other than the all-black ensemble, was more than a little shocking.

Just as always, my ebony hair came down to my waist, though it looked slightly more glossy than before. My long, pale, slender legs were on full display. My figure remained mostly unchanged, though my breasts were a mite smaller, and I looked a bit healthier in terms of weight – as if I had gained a few kilos, and my muscles had been fully restored. Overall, I looked just as I did in real life, only slightly shorter, with slightly smaller breasts.

_Well, I can't forget the ears_, I mused, reaching my right hand, gloved in a fingerless leather guard, up to feel my pointed ears. The points really felt like a part of my flesh, surprising me with the incredible detail put into it.

But then again…

"Randomly generated appearance, my foot," I assessed with a slight frown. "I look just like a younger me."

That thought immediately led to another. "What if…"

I quickly pushed my left thumb and index finger together and dragged downwards, mimicking a gesture mentioned briefly in the game's manual. A window popped up with a ringing sound a moment later.

The whole window – or rather, group of loosely-connected windows – seemed completely alien to me. I had no idea where to start looking, so I just started scrolling through the first thing that popped up: the equipment and inventory menu.

It didn't take long to discover that my suspicions were spot on. I most certainly did _not_ have the stats of a beginner, as shown by my stat screen for my equipment menu. It was as if my stats had been ported over… and from where, it wasn't hard to figure out.

"But even if these _are_ the same stats…"

I didn't know all that much about parameters in ALO, but it seemed that I was far from a novice in my last game. In fact, my stats appeared to be on an almost godly level. I had never seen so many maxed-out skills in my _life_. And my base stats, well… they weren't any less impressive. The sheer numbers displayed on all status and skill screens surpassed any and all expectations I could have had.

Deciding I had seen enough insanity there, I decided to go to my inventory next. I hit the tab that would show me all of my items right off the bat, and was met with…?

No, really. All of the visible items on the screen so far had nothing but question marks in their item names. It was as if they were all glitch items for whatever reason.

"Well, no reason to keep a bunch of trash I'll never use," I sighed, moving my hand towards the button to delete all of my items at once. "And besides, if I just leave them around in there and an admin finds me, he might freak out at all the bugs on my player ID."

I tapped the «Delete All» button, and a window popped up asking for confirmation. Strangely, just before I tapped the button to confirm my deletion request, some kind of feeling overwhelmed me. Something was compelling me not to just delete them all at once without even looking through them, to the point where I couldn't even physically move my finger to confirm.

_What's wrong with me?_

Finally, I decided to just give up for the moment. I hit «Cancel», sighing heavily as I muttered, "Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to look through them first…"

And so, I began slowly scrolling through lines and lines of question marks. There was nothing else for at least thirty seconds, so I almost completely missed the one item that had a different, smaller name as I mindlessly moved my finger.

But then, right before it left the display, my mind registered this slightly different item. I quickly moved it back to the center of the item display, carefully reading its name aloud.

"«Yui's Heart»…"

The icon next to it showed a jewel, which gave me the impression that this was a pendant of some sort. However, it had no stats to its name when I checked. Perplexed, I tapped on its name, then tapped on the button that I deduced would materialize this so-called pendant.

In a flash of light, something appeared and fell into the open palm of my right hand. A radiant blue crystal in the shape of a teardrop that somehow seemed to exude an essence of beauty and… love?

_What _is_ this thing?_ I asked myself, tapping it ever so gently with my left index finger.

That's all it took. The tear-shaped crystal started glowing with a blinding white light as it levitated from my hand and into the air above me. The glow expanded out beyond the confines of the crystal, growing larger and larger, until…

In an instant, the light vanished. In its wake, a beautiful human child appeared, looking to be no more than ten years old, if that. Her long, grayish-black hair spread out as she just levitated in the air. Her grayish-green eyes were open wide and staring straight into mine. She wore a white dress, yet had no shoes or any other articles of clothing to speak of.

_Who… is this…?_

For several seconds, all we did was stare at one another. Neither looked away or even blinked. The only thing to be heard was the sound of the quiet flowing of the stream beside me.

"Ma…" this high-pitched sound exited the open mouth of the girl hovering over me in a gentle, yet apprehensive whisper. I couldn't make sense of the intent, but the voice of this little girl sounded absolutely adorable. It made me want to hug her close, a feeling that I only ever got when Shadow begged for affection as a kitten.

"Ma…?" I slowly repeated, though it was more just mouthing the sound than actually uttering it.

All of a sudden, her eyes gained a happy shine, and a smile that illuminated the whole night around me flashed on her features. I didn't get much time to relish in it, however, as the elation of the smile was soon replaced by something else.

In no time at all, the girl had somehow wrapped her arms around my neck, burying her doll-like face into my shoulder and crying one word over and over into the crook of my black jacket. I couldn't make out the word throughout her muffled sobs, but the elation, the relief, the _love_ behind it almost made me pass out.

In my one year of memory, I had never once known someone who was so affectionate. The people who used to know me either kept their distance or outwardly showed their animosity towards me for forgetting them.

Without even understanding why, I found myself returning this little girl's embrace. Something about her just compelled me to give her affection, even if I had no idea who she was.

_This is really weird, but… I could get used to it._

After what seemed like eons, the girl pulled away from my shoulder. Her face shone with adoration and love, an emotion that almost felt completely foreign to me.

But then, she said one word that completely shattered this picture-perfect moment.

"Mama!"

At that one word, I backed away from her, releasing my embrace as horror filled my face. "No…"

"Mama?" she repeated, walking towards me as I backed away. "Are you okay?"

"No…" this was not an answer to her question, though it certainly would fit. I was more talking to myself as reality once again took its hold on me. "No, no, no, no, _no_! Not again!"

_Another person who knew the old me! _I shouted in my mind. I couldn't believe I had thought anything else of the situation. _As soon as she knows I don't remember her, she'll hate me, just like all the others!_

"Mama—"

"I'm not your mother!" on reflex, this snappy reply exited my mouth in a rushed shout.

This was it. The point where this little girl would cry, shout, and then hate me when I explained myself. And then she would leave me. Like everyone else.

I clenched my eyes shut, covering my ears so I didn't have to hear the crying, the shouting, and the inevitable rush of her tiny feet running away from me forever.

But nothing happened. There were no loud noises. I didn't feel any stomping on the ground as she ran away. Just… nothing.

"Why…?" I whispered, speaking just loudly enough to ensure that she heard. "Why aren't you yelling at me? Why aren't you telling me to be someone else like the rest of them?"

I didn't even hear her approach me. But even still, I felt her small, smooth hand grasp mine as it rested over my ear. I didn't resist when she pulled it down so I could hear her speak; she was being so gentle, I somehow knew that she wouldn't yell at me.

"Because you don't need to be."

These words, this deep, kind, heartfelt statement shocked me to my very core. It didn't make sense. This girl was a small child, shouldn't she react even more poorly than the teenagers and adults that called themselves my friends and family?

And yet, she seemed the most loving of all of them. The most caring. The most feeling.

The most _understanding_.

I opened my eyes to look at this small girl whose words had eluded my comprehension. Her face showed no malice – only concern, sympathy, and unconditional love.

"Even if you don't remember me, you're still you," she continued, using her free hand to wipe away tears I hadn't even realized were gathered in my eyes. "You're still the gentle, sweet, fun, amazing girl that found me when I was lost and gave me the kindness, happiness and love I thought I didn't deserve."

I had never heard these words before. Not even my mother, the only person from my past that I still had contact with, had said these words to me. _Was I… really like that?_

She finished the last of my doubts off with one, final statement.

"No matter what, you'll always be my mama."

It was as if all of my walls, erected one after another over a whole year of suffering, were being crumbled by the soft words of this small girl. My resolve to run away from everyone I knew nearly broke right then and there. But even though it didn't break entirely, there was enough room in between the cracks to squeeze one little girl through, right into my heart.

It was real. It would last. Her love for me was unconditional, and I somehow knew that it would never fade even a little.

Despite everything, I smiled. I smiled a genuine smile through the tears that fell, putting my other hand, which had just been used to try to block out everything around me, onto her head and gently ruffling her long, dark hair.

"What kind of a mom doesn't even know the name of her kid?" I whispered through the choked laughs that sounded almost like sobs. "At least tell me your name before I start calling you mine."

Her eyes, those large, dark gray orbs that had held caring and sympathy, suddenly took on a fierce glow of happiness. Her soft smile widened tenfold into an elated beam.

Just as I saw tears of joy build up in her eyes for the first time, she wrapped me in a fierce bear hug once again. In my ear, she whispered a name, her voice filled to the brim with relief, joy, and love.

"Yui!"

* * *

**Author's Note**

**I dunno how many of you were expecting Yui to appear, but she did. You'll soon find out, however, that their family circumstances before were far from the ones in the canon story.**

**Speaking of Yui, did any of you notice that she somehow knew about Kiriko's memory loss? Well, you'll see why eventually. For now, just be assured that that detail was **_**not**_** a mistake on my part.**

**Also, I want to dispel any thoughts that this story will be following the Fairy Dance arc in any way other than the premise. There is no Fairy King Oberon in this particular incarnation of Alfheim. The way it came into being will also be slightly different because of this. And in case you're wondering where Oberon/Sugou actually fits into the story, if at all, then I'll tell you that, chronologically, he already played the main antagonist role. That will be expanded upon as well.**

**Okay, I normally would have just deleted it, but a certain guest review I got to this story really irked me. So I decided to leave it and make an example of it. The guy was positive, I guess, but his last sentence was brilliantly inconsiderate and rude. "Please make your chapter updates in a regular basis so you won't lose potential followers." That's what he said.**

**Look, I'm happy if you enjoy my stories, I really am. The issue here is that my life is busy, hectic, and **_**real**_**. Honestly, I'm surprised I can keep any of my stories going **_**or**_** create new ones with the way life has been leading me lately. I would appreciate it if, from now on, you **_**never**_** tell me to update in such an inconsiderate, rude, and downright ignorant way again. Thanks in advance.**

**Well, I guess I've kept both you and myself long enough. By the time you all read this, I'll already be neck-deep in chapter three, I assure you.**

**See ya next time!**


	3. I-III: A Path of Fragments

**Author's Note**

**This just sort of came out of nowhere. I had been stuck at about a thousand words for a long time, since about three days after I published chapter two. Then, suddenly, I found a way to continue about a week ago, which upped it to around fourteen-hundred. (Then another bit of writer's block) Then, this morning, that suddenly jumped to twenty-five-hundred, where I decided to call it a chapter.**

**And in between a week ago and today, I ended up making significant progress on two other stories that I've been rather stumped on for at least a couple weeks. One of which involved making a sort of side-chapter that focused on a different character. That one took a couple of hours to break one-thousand words, which is certainly good time for me.**

**So, you might see two other stories of mine updated in the near future, too. I won't spoil which ones, but I will say that I think the people who've been following me for a while might be happy.**

* * *

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Chapter Three: A Path of Fragments

_Despite everything, I smiled. I smiled a genuine smile through the tears that fell, putting my other hand, which had just been used to try to block out everything around me, onto her head and gently ruffling her long, dark hair._

"_What kind of a mom doesn't even know the name of her kid?" I whispered through the choked laughs that sounded almost like sobs. "At least tell me your name before I start calling you mine."_

_Her eyes, those large, dark gray orbs that had held caring and sympathy, suddenly took on a fierce glow of happiness. Her soft smile widened tenfold into an elated beam._

_Just as I saw tears of joy build up in her eyes for the first time, she wrapped me in a fierce bear hug once again. In my ear, she whispered a name, her voice filled to the brim with relief, joy, and love._

"_Yui!"_

* * *

It took around fifteen minutes for the both of us to compose ourselves. We had settled into a position where Yui sat on my lap, leaning her head back on my chest, and I was sitting on a fallen log not too far from the brook where we met.

Her eyes were closed, and her soft, even breathing soothed me. She looked like a sleeping angel in her long, white dress, with the only missing piece being a set of pure white wings.

As she sat there, sleeping peacefully, I found myself deep in thought. _How did she know that I lost my memory?_ This question echoed over and over in my mind, the lack of answer maddening me.

Finally, I could take it no longer. "Yui?" I softly whispered, gently shaking her shoulders until she stirred.

"Mama?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes before looking up at me.

Even though I had no patience to spare, my words remained soft and gentle. "How did you know that I lost my memories?"

Her face darkened instantly. In that moment, she looked nothing like the little kid she was; she looked wise beyond her years and mine combined. "I think… I remember the event that caused it."

This stunned me speechless. This little girl knew about what caused my amnesia? How? Was she there when it happened?

These questions and thousands more plagued my mind. But I didn't ask them, even though I wanted to know more than anything else.

"Aren't you going to ask me what it was?" my daughter asked me. Her voice sounded sad, as if she didn't want to tell.

I smiled down at Yui, ruffling her hair before telling her, "I want to, trust me. But you look like it pains you to remember, right? If it hurts you to tell me, then I don't need to know just yet."

She smiled gratefully. "That's just like you, Mama," she told me with a shaky laugh. "Putting the feelings of others before your own wants and needs."

"What can I say?" I replied in a soft and caring tone. "I hate seeing others sad."

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few more minutes. Neither of us moved, save for our gentle, rhythmic breathing. I felt so relaxed, I almost fell asleep.

But then, out of nowhere, Yui perked up, turning around in my lap to face me. My eyes, half closed, immediately opened wide at her serious expression.

"What is it, Yui?" I queried, slightly unnerved by her look.

"Do you really want to remember who you were?" the question was quite sudden, but it really made me think.

_Do I want to know who I used to be? I mean, if I remember, it might change who I am now. Do I really want that?_

After a few more seconds of thinking, I finally came up with an answer. "Yes. So many people were hurt because I didn't remember them; if I could make their pain go away by remembering, then it would be for the best."

"But do _you_ want to remember?" she repeated the question, though the emphasis had been shifted. "Regardless of what others want, what is Mama's wish?"

Once again, this little girl showed wisdom and compassion well beyond her apparent age. And once again, she made me think seriously for several seconds. And once again, I came up with an answer, though not as definite.

"Yes," I finally answered her. "At least, I think so."

Yui seemed to contemplate my response for a few seconds. "All right, then. I think I found a way to help you remember."

_Wait, what?_

"I was using my limited admin rights to look around the map of this game," she continued, reminding me of her earlier, vague mention of her origins. "And I saw some kind of disturbance all over the place. There are around thirteen locations in total."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with my memory?" I didn't get what she was on about in the slightest.

"I was getting to that," she replied tersely. "I felt something else in the disturbances, too. They all seemed to hold some kind of data pertaining to your player ID."

If I thought what she said before was confusing, then this was downright crazy. She had basically just told me that my player ID was scattered all around the map. But why would that happen?

"What's weirder," she continued, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Is that they don't use your player ID for ALO. Instead…"

Why she trailed off like that was beyond me. All I knew was that the suspense was killing me.

"Instead what?" I gently prodded. I didn't want to upset her by sounding too frantic.

"Instead, they all relate to your player ID from the original «Gun Gale Online»," she revealed at last.

_Wha… what? What the heck does _that_ mean?_

She answered my thoughts no more than a second after I thought them. "My guess is that they contain your memories of your time in «Gun Gale Online», turned into data so that the system could process them. But, at the same time, they couldn't be fully processed, so they scattered across the map as what appear to be disturbances in the game's programming."

It took me several seconds to process this. "So you're saying that if I find these 'disturbances', I might get my memories back in fragments?"

"Essentially," she replied. She sounded adorable when she said big words, if you want my opinion. "But we have to be quick about finding them. If an admin notices, then they might try to delete them."

_That makes sense…_

Despite the situation, I found a smile on my face. "Well, it looks like I have a grand quest to start. This ought to make the game more interesting."

Then, my face turned deadly serious. "So, where can I find the closest one?" I asked my in-game daughter, positively fired up to start.

"Due west," she responded after a second or two of thought. "It's close enough to reach on foot, so you don't need to learn to fly just yet."

The way she said it made it sound like I shouldn't want to learn. "Is learning to fly _that_ hard?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not something I could help you learn," my in-game daughter explained. Soon after, she began to shrink at a fierce pace, with her clothes shrinking to match.

"W-what's going on?" I asked her somewhat-frantically. She merely smiled as she continued to shrink.

At last, when she was small enough to fit into my jacket's left side pocket, she spoke. "If I want to avoid being spotted and deleted by the system or an admin, I can't keep the form I've been in for very long. I decided to change into a «Navigation Pixie» for the time being. That will also help us locate the sources of the disturbances more accurately."

"I see," I replied, nodding my head as I opened my breast pocket for her. "Good thinking."

Yui caught the hint rather fast. She flew over to my pocket with her newly-developed pink wings, settling down into it with a comfortable amount of space. From there, she gave me further directions.

"Due west, about a hundred meters, there's a small, shallow spring surrounded by large spires of rock," she informed me, pointing in her mentioned direction. "In the center, there will be a sphere of white light. That is our target."

I took a deep, measured breath, tensing my muscles for a sprint. "You ready?" I asked my in-game daughter, smiling when her tiny head bobbled in a determined nod from within my pocket.

"Then hang on tight!"

With this warning, I began my sprint. My stats really weren't lying, either, as I quickly found out. Everything seemed to move by in a blur. In fact, not even ten seconds passed before the thick forest parted ways to surround a small clearing. In the middle…

_Someone's there!_

I jumped back into the cover of trees without a sound, observing this new arrival with a wary gaze. However, I didn't exactly expect what came next.

"Don't think you can hide from a Cait Sith who maxed her «Scout» skill. I knew you were coming for the past five seconds before you got to where you are."

This completely caught me off guard – I had to have been at least ten meters away, and my whole body should've been concealed from the cover of the nighttime forest. How in the heck did this player, a girl by the sound of her voice, notice me even before I got to that point?

"I said, 'come out'!" she snapped, turning to face me with angry golden eyes that I could see glowing, even from under the shadows the hood of her brown cloak provided. "And I won't say it again! Next time, I'll attack you!"

_She is _pissed_. I don't think I want to deal with the wrath of someone like her._

At this point, I figured I'd be far better off just doing what she said than trying to make a break for it. With a sigh, I began walking towards this girl tentatively, unsure as to what she could do to me.

However, the moment I left the cover of the forest, I realized I was about to find out.

"What… the hell?" It was barely a whisper, yet somehow, I heard her shocked voice ask me this. And then, things really started to get dangerous.

"I don't know who you are, but you've got a lot of guts to make an avatar exactly like hers!"

I had barely drawn my starter sword by the time this angry player reached me, her cloak almost flying off from the speed at which her right arm left its concealment, swiping at me with a razor-sharp claw weapon. I dodged the attack aimed at my chest by no more than a few millimeters.

_So fast!_

I didn't have time to contemplate why she used claws, which put her at a range disadvantage with pretty much everything, before her left claw mirrored her first strike. This time, I managed to block with my sword instead of dodge, but the sheer power of her strike actually sent me flying back into the air.

Then, the unexpected happened. From my position several meters above her, I saw her cloak rustle slightly from the back, as if she were flexing out the muscles between her shoulder blades. Golden, shining, leaf-like things appeared behind her, originating from the spot she supposedly flexed.

No more than a second later, she was right at my level in the air. She wasted no time going back on the offensive, taking an overhead swipe at me with her right claw. Even though I managed to block in time, the force of her attack sent me crashing back to the ground.

And yet, this angry girl didn't continue her attack. She just stayed suspended there in the air, a faint glow coming from the golden leaf-like extremities on her back. It took me a moment to realize that they must have been her wings, and that she was actually flying.

"Why don't you strike back?" she asked from the air, her tone dripping with venom. "Is it because you're too weak? Or is it because someone called you out on imitating Kiriko, the hero of Gun Gale Online?"

Her last question caught me entirely off guard. My eyes widened as I slowly began to process this new and shocking information. _I was… a hero?_

"Come on!" Unfortunately, she wouldn't give me the time to fully grasp it. "Fight back! Show me why you thought you could imitate her and get away with it!"

At this point, I was fed up with all the 'imitation' crap she kept spewing. If she wanted a fight, she definitely had one.

"I'm not imitating anyone!" I finally shouted in retort. "But if you want a fight, you're on!"

I didn't know for sure what the old me was in Gun Gale, and I didn't know what it meant to this girl in front of me. Quite frankly, I didn't care. But I'd be damned if I just let someone keep calling me a hack. I wasn't the Kiriko this girl seemed to know, and I never would be.

And I would never try to imitate someone I'm not.

I tried to remember how the cloaked girl hovering above me had grown her wings. Something about flexing her back muscles. When I tried it myself, I suddenly heard a strange noise from behind me, and it almost felt like a whole new set of muscles had extended from the ones I flexed.

Slowly, I felt my feet lift from the ground. I looked down, smiling at what I saw. I was flying! Even though I only hovered a few inches off the grassy ground, I felt weightless, as if I could reach the simulated moon in the sky above us if I tried. It gave me a sense of freedom I hadn't felt since I woke up a year before, with no memories and the accumulated common knowledge of an infant.

It was essentially the most liberated I had felt in my life.

Looking back up at my opponent, my expression hardened. I wasn't afraid of the enraged claw-user above me. With the power of my goddess-like stats, the freedom of flight, and a single sword, I would defeat her.

"Haaa!"

* * *

**Author's Note**

**With my usual updating pace and my tendency to leave cliffhangers every couple of chapters, I'm pretty much the worst author ever, huh?**

**My habits and their effects on my reputation aside, any guesses as to the identity of the claw-user? Those with knowledge of which character uses claws in canon probably have an idea, and are probably right.**

**Also, anyone wondering why Yui didn't appear and try to clear things up between claw-user and Kiriko? So am I, I just wrote it that way. Now I have to come up with a plausible reason… shit…**

**And for those of you wondering how the claw-user was so powerful as to be able to blast Kiriko into the air and back into the ground with her hits, keep in mind that Kiriko entered the game with the starting gear, which implies little in the ways of defensive gear. Sure, her base stats are high, but having totally crappy equipment still puts her at a serious disadvantage. In other words, no knockback protection.**

**Well, that's about it for now. I feel like I had something else to say, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. So I'll let you off the hook for now.**

**Till next time!**


	4. I-IV: First Battle, The First Fragment

**Author's Note**

**I should mention this ahead of time, but those of you who still follow Gun Gale Online: The Swordswoman – Transcendent Bonds and don't wish to be heavily spoiled of the plot of that story should turn back immediately. There are huge spoilers concerning the future of that story (as in , further down the line than the original version of GGO: SW got) in this update. You have been warned.**

**For those of you who don't mind being spoiled, please, do continue reading. This sequel is kind of meant to fill in the gaps that might never get filled by the original, so you'll get to know a lot of things that might never be explained in the main line. You'll also be reading things that everybody still just on GGO: SW – TB will eventually read, but isn't able to yet because I haven't gotten that far in it. Because a lot of the "past" in this fic is the "future" for that fic.**

**Anyway, I'll let those of you who want to read it go ahead. See you at the bottom!**

* * *

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Chapter Four: Shocking First Battle; The First Fragment

* * *

_I tried to remember how the cloaked girl hovering above me had grown her wings. Something about flexing her back muscles. When I tried it myself, I suddenly heard a strange noise from behind me, and it almost felt like a whole new set of muscles had extended from the ones I flexed._

_Slowly, I felt my feet lift from the ground. I looked down, smiling at what I saw. I was flying! Even though I only hovered a few inches off the grassy ground, I felt weightless, as if I could reach the simulated moon in the sky above us if I tried. It gave me a sense of freedom I hadn't felt since I woke up a year before, with no memories and the accumulated common knowledge of an infant._

_It was essentially the most liberated I had felt in my life._

_Looking back up at my opponent, my expression hardened. I wasn't afraid of the enraged claw-user above me. With the power of my goddess-like stats, the freedom of flight, and a single sword, I would defeat her._

_"Haaa!"_

* * *

As it turns out, flying in ALO is far from an easy task when your avatar's flying speed exceeds that of the fastest few in the player-base. I ended up shooting straight past my target so quickly that I didn't even have time to slash at her with my sword. In a mere second, I found myself in the air twenty, thirty, forty meters above my assailant – and gaining.

I tried to stop all at once, but drastically misjudged how long it would take for me to safely stop when I had so much momentum built up. The result made me know exactly how flat a pancake probably felt as I stopped on a dime, experiencing an effect undeniably like being rag-dolled.

I just floated in the air for a moment, unable to process what just happened while my whole brain felt scrambled. "Yui," I said in a heavy daze, remembering her aversion to me flying. "Now I understand why you wanted me to walk…"

"Mama, focus!" came a light squeak from my jacket's left side pocket.

"Wha—rrgh!"

I looked below me just in time to see my target zooming up to meet me. I blocked both incoming claw strikes with my sword, then slashed through the air in front of my opponent in order to force her to back off. My strike caught her right in the stomach, however, as she had refused to create any distance between us.

"Don't run away from me!"

"I wasn't—never mind!"

And yet my target still didn't stop. She continued to get in strike after strike, though I blocked each with my sword with relative ease. Finally, I understood the advantage of claw weapons.

_They're so light, she can chain attack after attack without getting tired! They're a high-hit combo weapon!_

As I blocked the umpteenth attack from her claws with minimal effort (I had her patterns down to a science by now), I decided I should try to get some strikes in, myself. I had merely been blocking until now, but I remembered something called a «Parry» in the game's manual being able to momentarily stun any enemy.

"Ha!"

With a fierce battle cry, I deflected a strike from my opponent's right claw, then immediately reversed the direction of my swing and tore into her abdomen. I looked at the HP bar to the left of her head, noting that just two solid hits from me had depleted it by more than half – it had turned yellow after my most recent strike. In fact, the whole bar was coated in yellow after my successful parry, with a yellow lightning bolt to its left. Accompanied by the sudden pause in her movement, I knew I had my opponent stunned.

And I took full advantage of it. In a mere split second, I slashed through the cloaked body twice, creating a red X pattern across her chest. The last of her virtual life depleted, and for a moment, I felt an inexplicable sense of extreme dread. Almost as if I had really killed her, even though it was merely a game, and all I had done was deplete her game avatar's HP.

In the second between her last HP vanishing and the disappearance of her humanoid body, the glare in my opponent's eyes scared the hell out of me. But then, a mere instant later, her whole body burst into yellow flames. The flames then condensed into a spherical shape with a timer in the middle of it, counting down from 400 – the form the fallen players would temporarily take in ALO until they automatically respawned, or so I had read: the «Remains Light».

I decided to take it down to the ground with me, this time at a much slower pace. I would explain myself to this girl who obviously had the wrong idea about my avatar. I would clear up this misunderstanding quickly and efficiently – right after I got the fragment of my memories directly below us.

Once we reached the ground, I let the yellow, smoldering remains of my opponent hover in the air a few meters away from my real target: the light at the center of the spring. Sheathing my sword, I began to move.

I hovered above the water, just high enough to reach the light as I moved towards it. When I finally touched the edge of the light, thousands upon thousands of words, sounds and images poured into my brain at the speed of light.

* * *

_"B-but… you were… you were a cross-player?!"_

_"So that's how you knew my name. You must have been a beta player, too. But still, I don't remember associating with any girls with your voice…_

"_There's only one person I could think of who would be so shocked that I cross-played! But… that makes you a hypocrite, Kii-boy!"_

* * *

"_Kiriko, you know you can trust me, right? Right now, nothing you say has any chance of being sold. Informant's honor!"_

"_I know, Argo. I'm just not ready to say anything yet. Please, just respect that for now."_

"_O-oi! Wait, Kiriko! Just tell me what's wrong! I want to help!"_

"_Can you bring the dead back to life? Can you change the way people feel about the original me?"_

"_What…?"_

"_If you can't do those things, then don't waste your time trying to help me. It'll just make it harder on both of us."_

* * *

"_Kiriko! I won't let you do this! It's suicide to take on an event boss alone, no matter what the reward might be!"_

"_What does it matter? Everyone who cared about me is dead. The only person who ever claimed to love me hates my guts more than she hates being trapped here in GGO. Even if I die, it's not like anyone would miss me."_

"…_!"_

"_If you understand, then get out of my way, informant."_

"… _Kiriko! You're wrong! There's still someone alive who cares about you! There's still someone here who loves you, who would miss you more than anyone else when you're gone! And she's staying right here! She won't let you get yourself killed, no matter what you think of her afterward!"_

"_Don't lie… don't joke around with me, Argo!"_

"_I'm not lying or joking! I've never been more serious about anything! Not even XaXa!"_

* * *

"… Mama! Mama, wake up!"

When I came to, I found myself huddled, knee-deep in water, clutching my head as if I had a tremendous, earsplitting headache. I heard Yui calling to me desperately from her spot in my pocket, but I couldn't respond as tremors ran through my whole body, leaving me immobile and vulnerable.

As the last few images and sounds flashed through my mind, I started breathing once more, gasping desperately for virtual air that I didn't really need, and the tremors stopped wreaking havoc on my avatar.

"Y-Yui…" I whispered shakily into my jacket sleeves as I buried my face in my arms. "I'm okay now…"

The images and sounds that had flooded my brain… they felt like mine, yet didn't at the same time. I felt like I was intruding on the life of someone else just by having them, yet also felt like they belonged to me. I knew why these conflicts entered my perception… it was plainly obvious.

The me from back then and the me now were two completely different people. We had different personalities, different lives, different people we connected to. Almost everything about and around us was different.

In a sense, the memories I gained from these spheres of data would probably never feel truly like my own. Too much had changed. And yet, I still wanted them. If only to know what the old me was like, to know about the girl everyone seemed to care about over the amnesiac girl who actually escaped virtual reality in her place. I _needed_ to know. That desire had solidified now, more than ever.

I raised my head to look at the timer on the yellow «Remains Light» three meters to my left. I noted that several minutes had passed since I touched the light, with only twenty or so seconds left on the clock before this girl would auto-revive.

When I looked directly above me, I noticed that the light at the center of the spring had vanished without a trace. I must have absorbed every last bit of the data inside it. But still… it seemed as if these memories, all of them seemingly about one person, were incomplete, somehow. It seemed like the 'end' was missing. There was no satisfying conclusion to what happened in them.

It only made me desire to find the rest even faster. I needed to know what happened, no matter what.

By the time the counter hit zero and the person I defeated respawned, I had positioned myself right in front of her. She made a move to attack me, but I merely held up my hands in the air as a form of peace message.

"Let me explain," I quickly said, causing her to hesitate.

While she stood there in silence, I got a chance to observe her face from under the hood of her dark brown cloak. Of note were three light tan whisker marks that adorned each side of her face, right on her cheeks. Instantly, a new sense of recognition flared up in my brain. These marks, along with the light brown, curly hair, looked undeniably just like those of the girl whose presence had just flooded my mind through thousands of memories.

I chose to continue with what I had been planning to say, instead of acknowledging that I now remembered her. "This avatar of mine is not made to copy anyone. I looked like this as soon as I entered the game about an hour ago. But it wasn't randomly-generated, either. It looks like a younger version of my real-life body."

"That's impossible," this figure from my past growled. "This game makes the appearance intentionally different from your real-life body for security reasons. And besides, you're way too strong to have been playing for only an hour."

What she said reminded me that my stats were essentially maxed out, and the reason why they probably were. "If it makes any difference, I logged on using a «Nerve Gear». My high stats and appearance were both from its local memory, or so I suspect."

"But… why would you have Kiriko's «Nerve Gear»?" I could tell I was starting to convince this person by her latest question.

"Because…" and yet, I couldn't figure out how to word this without causing some damage. "Because… I'm Kiriko. Or, at least, I was."

"Don't lie to me," came her flat response.

"Mama isn't lying!" a certain pixie responded in a high-pitched squeak, flying right out of my jacket pocket and up into my conversational opponent's face.

"Y-Yui…!"

Somehow, the fact that the first people I met in this new game knew both each other, and me, was starting to seem awfully weird.

"Mama has lost her memories of everything, but she's still the same person!" my in-game daughter continued to yell in the face of the girl across from me. "If you can't believe her, then believe me, Argo-mama!"

_Argo… mama? Wait, don't tell me…_

This couldn't be happening. I had figured that the girl who attacked me had been the Argo from my newly-obtained memories, but… I had no idea… it just couldn't be…

There was no way we had both raised a child together. Not even an adopted one.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**I'm not at all satisfied with the way this chapter ended. I kinda got stuck about 1300 words in, and when I tried to continue anyway, the last 700 words just degenerated more and more. I apologize for the mechanical writing that resulted from me trying to force myself to continue past my breaking point.**

**Anyway, I tried to keep the flashbacks/spoilers in this chapter restricted to just dialogue, because I didn't want to reveal my whole hand. Anyone who still hates me anyway for spoiling another story with this one got what they asked for by reading this chapter.**

**Well, I should probably point out that the rest of the chapters in this fic will likely have spoilers for GGO: SW – TB as well. There's no escaping that. If you don't like that, you're welcome to stop reading now, despite all the warnings I've given the whole time.**

**For those of you curious, the next thing to be updated will likely be Forgive - Forget = Love. That's not a guarantee, but it is a possibility.**

**Also, I put up a new poll on my profile! It asks you, the readers, what you want me to do with new story ideas after they make it past the initial chapters. Should I publish them, or should I wait until more of my works are finished? Now you all get to have a say!**

**Gotta go for now. Don't expect another update to this anytime soon – I'm totally burnt out on it.**


	5. Intermission: True Strength

**Author's Note**

**Another intermission! Nothing much other than setup and spoiler exposition (For GGO: SW – TB, and specifically Argo's perspective on the story) actually happens in this chapter, so despite being full-length, I dubbed it an intermission.**

**By the way, as of the current voting stats of my new poll, the prevailing view is that I should post a new chapter to an existing story every time I publish something completely new. So, in about fifteen minutes or so, I'll be publishing a new fic! This one will be a Puella Magi Madoka Magica AU story, and it will be my first M-rated fic. Mostly because of the fact that I couldn't possibly swing the premise and current outline without upping the rating to M at a later date. As for the pairing, you'll just have to wait and see. (Hint: it's a rare Kyouko pairing)**

**Well, I'll let you read now. You have already been warned about the GGO: SW – TB spoilers, so don't go getting mad at me for it later.**

* * *

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Intermission I: True Strength

_"Mama isn't lying!" a certain pixie responded in a high-pitched squeak, flying right out of my jacket pocket and up into my conversational opponent's face._

_"Y-Yui…!"_

_Somehow, the fact that the first people I met in this new game knew both each other, and me, was starting to seem awfully weird._

_"Mama has lost her memories of everything, but she's still the same person!" my in-game daughter continued to yell in the face of the girl across from me. "If you can't believe her, then believe me, Argo-mama!"_

Argo… mama? Wait, don't tell me…

_This couldn't be happening. I had figured that the girl who attacked me had been the Argo from my newly-obtained memories, but… I had no idea… it just couldn't be…_

_There was no way we had both raised a child together. Not even an adopted one._

* * *

Fifteen minutes and several explanations later, the three of us sat on the spires of the spring. I sat on the left one, Argo sat on the right one, and Yui napped in my pocket.

A rather uncomfortable silence had fallen as the gravity of my and Yui's words hit her. I hadn't wanted to break it, for fear of causing the thus-far composed player across from me to break down.

But no silence could last forever. Eventually, one of us would have to speak. Speak and break this unbearable quiet that had settled in, consuming my consciousness with doubt and fear.

Eventually, I could take it no longer. "Argo-san—"

"Just Argo, please. We're in a game, no need for formalities."

"R-right… Argo," I backtracked slightly. I had completely forgotten that this was nothing more than a virtual space designed to facilitate enjoyment – I had forgotten that it was a game. "In our last VRMMO, before I lost my memories… what kind of person was I?"

I was really going out on a limb by asking this. I left myself vulnerable to the very thing that had caused me so much grief since I woke up: people who cared about the old me. And yet I didn't really fear her response. This person, at least, wasn't a part of my present memories, and had never tried to force me into remembering my lost past. She also understood the situation already. But more than any logical reason… I felt a sense of calm with her that I didn't feel around anyone else I had ever met. I felt a warm comfort from her, despite the fact that she had attacked me mere tens of minutes before.

"You were strong," she responded after a moment's thought. "You had a strength that couldn't be summed up by your stats alone. A strength that surpassed any simple game system. Stronger than anyone else. You were also very… very kind. Your kind, aloof personality and beautiful appearance made many people fall in love with you, and hundreds more were highly interested in you for more than just your high level and stats.

"When you were mentally stable, you were needlessly selfless. You would save people without caring that they might have hated you after they recognized who you were, remembered what you had done to survive alone. You saved a lot of people who wanted to kill you, only to make them change their minds about doing it.

"But… when you got depressed, you were incredibly selfish. You didn't tell anyone when something hurt you, even if it left a gaping wound in your heart. You held it all in, and eventually, it nearly broke you several times. You would do things that would be suicidal for anyone but you, only to come back alive, with an empty expression that said you had failed, even though you succeeded.

"As an informant, about seventy percent of the people trying to buy people's info from me wanted info on you. You caught the eyes of everyone. Everyone wanted either to be you, be with you or be like you."

"Which of those were you?" I took the small gap as I found it. I couldn't stand hearing about the old me anymore. It hurt so much, more than anything I had experienced. "Did you want to be me, be with me, or be like me?"

"I… I wanted to…" she took a deep breath and looked me right in the eye. I shrunk back slightly at the determination in her gaze. "I wanted to be with you. I wanted to always remain by your side."

"Argo…" I felt the breath leave my virtual lungs at the sincerity in her words. I took another breath, not quite accustomed to my lack of need for oxygen in this virtual space. "You said… you said that many people fell in love with me. Were you… one of them?"

This time, I was quite fearful of the answer. How would I respond if it were the case? I had only just met this girl tonight, as far as the current me went… but there was no denying that she had at least been connected with the old me on some level in the past.

_What was I thinking, asking her that?! Now things are gonna be so weird…!_

But she sent all my fears up in flames with one shot. "Yeah. I loved you – the you of the past, anyway. Not this you. You may look, sound and sort of act like the Kiriko I loved, but you're not the same person anymore. You've changed too much after losing your memories."

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. Her response left no reasonable way for me to feel scared or awkward. This proved it – Argo wasn't out to force me to remember, and she wasn't in love with the current me. This drastically simplified everything.

"Thank you, Argo…" I said, trying to convey all my gratitude in a few simple words. "I may never be that person again, but… I'll try to at least regain what memories are stored in this world. No matter what they may contain, I will get them again. I swear it now."

"I know you will," the whiskered Cait Sith acknowledged my resolve with a warm smile. "You're not the kind of person to give up on a grand quest once you start it, no matter how hard it is."

"You got that right," I couldn't help but reply in kind with her happy words.

"By the way, I don't know what your home life is like, but… shouldn't you be in bed about now? It's past ten…"

This reminder shocked me stiff. How in the heck had that happened? It couldn't have been later than eight when I logged on, so how could more than two hours have passed since I started playing?

"Whoa, really?" I queried, receiving a nod in return. "Man, I gotta go! I was expecting a call at nine!"

* * *

After logging off, I quickly slid the Nerve Gear off of my head, getting out of bed and stiffly walking over to my nightstand to check my phone. As I suspected, I had three missed calls from my therapist. The time read 10:26, and the calls were made at 9:00, 9:30 and 10:00. He didn't leave voice mails (he never did), but he would call every thirty minutes if I didn't respond, until I finally got the memo and called back myself.

With four minutes to spare, I slid my index finger across the screen right where the most recent missed call showed up. A new screen pulled up on my phone, one that showed I had selected to call someone. The caller ID showed up as "Weirdo Brainiac", the two most fitting adjectives for my therapist.

I put the phone to my ear just as the ringing started, several seconds in. The first ring didn't even finish before he picked up. "I was worried," were the first three words he said to me, completely skipping any form of greeting.

"Sorry, sir. I got caught up in a new game and didn't hear the phone ring," came my honest response. "I just logged off for the night."

"A new game? Tell me more," he suggested with genuine curiosity. My favorite part about this person was that he never told a lie. He never said or asked something he didn't mean, even if it ended up upsetting others. To me, it was an endearing quality.

"A VRMMO called ALfheim Online," I replied with a slight hint of uncertainty, realizing what conclusions he would probably jump to midway through. But it was too late to stop explaining halfway. "I wondered what it would be like, and someone gave it to me for free. So I used my Nerve Gear to play it."

"I won't scold you," came a stiff reply that told me he was trying his hardest not to berate me for my recklessness. "I'm sure you were well aware of the risks involved in doing so."

"Yes, I was…" I said, looking down at the floor as I blatantly lied to him. "I knew exactly what I was doing. Anyway, why did you want to speak to me tonight?"

"Oh, yes, that," my therapist gave every indication that he had completely forgotten why he called in the first place. "I've been in talks with the government in regards to what to do with you. No matter how much they insist, I can tell you won't yield in regards to going back to school. However, you need to complete your education somehow. They told me recently that they are going to be starting a new school made specifically for the survivors of the GGO incident."

_What…? Wait, don't tell me—!_

"I said I would convince you to go in and at least give it a try. You'll be with the first years, since you had a lot more to catch up on after losing your—"

"NO!"

It took all my restraint not to hang up the phone on the spot and have a panic attack right there in my room. I could hear my cat, Shadow, approaching my room, so he must have sensed my dread.

"I know this will be a big change, but please try to think of the opportunities it will provide you. Think of the benefits," my therapist tried to reason with me. But it was too late… I was gone.

_No, no, no, no, no! I can't go back! Not to all those people who remember the old me! No, no way in hell!_

But then, a thought struck me. What if Argo went to this school? I would get to see the only person I considered a friend again. Maybe… maybe she could help me. The calming effect she had on me in ALO had not at all been forgotten.

_If… if I'm with her, I might be able to handle it._

I put the phone back to my ear. "One… one question," I managed on a shaky breath. "Ask them if the survivor known in-game as 'Argo' will be attending… if she goes, then I'll go."

"Okay, I'll ask them. Goodnight, Kimiko."

"… Night."

_Click_

I couldn't believe I just did that. I had remained strong in my refusal to attend school up until this point – after all, I would have had to be in a class well behind my year due to my amnesia, despite being almost the age of a third year in high school.

_But… if it would mean getting to see her again…_

If it meant getting to see Argo again, the girl with the calming presence, things like fitting in with my classmates seemed like completely unimportant things to me. Useless, pointless, utterly unimportant nuisances.

Up until now, the only way to feel truly calm was to isolate myself from the rest of the world in my little house, with only my cat as company, or to read and shut off the world at that game shop. But one person had singlehandedly shattered my notion of the word, 'calm'. She brought a peace to me that I never would have found on my own.

_Argo… was it? I wonder what her real name is…_

Thoughts like these plagued me well into the night. When I finally fell asleep, I dreamed I was back in ALO, talking and laughing together with Yui and Argo.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**So, this was a nice little setup chapter/intermission! Get ready for some more fragmented memories next chapter, though. That **_**is**_** the main theme of this fic, after all.**

**Well, I won't keep you for long. I still have to write the author's notes on my PMMM fic, then publish it within fifteen minutes. And I still haven't thought of a summary yet!**

**I honestly didn't expect to see this chapter getting two updates in a row so quickly, though. Not sure why it happened, but it did. Let's just hope I can keep it up!**

**See you all next chapter (or possibly next chapter)!**


	6. I-V: First Day - Part I

**Author's Note**

**So, as promised in my Puella Magi Madoka Magica fic, **_**I'd Rather Die**_**, here's the next chapter of ALO: PtR. It's a little less than how long I said it'd be without author's notes, but they make up for it.**

**So, this chapter goes to about the middle of Kiriko's first day at school. She'll meet some people that the old her knew, and more characters will be introduced! Things are about to get real complicated for Kiriko.**

**Anyway, I'll keep the top note short and sweet. Just know that the next update will likely be to GGO: SW – TB. Probably. If I can get past the barrier I've had for a few weeks.**

**See you at the bottom!**

* * *

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Chapter Five: First Day – Part I

* * *

_I couldn't believe I just did that. I had remained strong in my refusal to attend school up until this point – after all, I would have had to be in a class well behind my year due to my amnesia, despite being almost the age of a third year in high school._

But… if it would mean getting to see her again…

_If it meant getting to see Argo again, the girl with the calming presence, things like fitting in with my classmates seemed like completely unimportant things to me. Useless, pointless, utterly unimportant nuisances._

_Up until now, the only way to feel truly calm was to isolate myself from the rest of the world in my little house, with only my cat as company, or to read and shut off the world at that game shop. But one person had singlehandedly shattered my notion of the word, 'calm'. She brought a peace to me that I never would have found on my own._

Argo… was it? I wonder what her real name is…

_Thoughts like these plagued me well into the night. When I finally fell asleep, I dreamed I was back in ALO, talking and laughing together with Yui and Argo._

* * *

The next morning, I awoke to a call from my therapist. I groggily said good morning, still more unconscious than not, when he told me the news. He said the player by the in-game name 'Argo' would be attending, but as a third year. He also said he had arranged for us to go to school together, to which I responded by stuttering out the frank question of why (and how) he would do that.

As it turned out, Argo actually lived quite close to my current house. We must have just never met each other, or never noticed that we passed by each other. Or, in my case, I probably never noticed her presence because I was dead-set on living in my own little world for months on end.

He said the survivor school for our area (there were multiple schools, seeing as about thirty-thousand of the fifty-one-thousand survivors were school-going age) would be ready to accept me (because they had apparently started a few weeks prior) in a few days, at the next Monday. Which meant I didn't have much longer before the majority of my life was taken up by something other than ALO. I decided I had to work double time in order to regain as many memories as possible in that time.

Thus, I scarfed down a quick breakfast, fed Shadow, took care of morning hygiene, and found myself back in bed not an hour after I woke up. This time, I had a Nerve Gear on my head.

"Link Start," the words left my mouth as easily as an outgoing breath. It made me think about how it was strangely easy to remember the startup phrase for my second time using it.

By Sunday night's end, I had gained the memories contained in three more of the distortions. It was at that point that I noticed a pattern for the first time.

Every set of memories seemed to focus on a single person. The first had all been about Argo, the second about a nice guy-turned player-killer named XaXa, the third about a girl with incredible potential named Asuna, and the fourth about a fragile girl I had formed an incredibly strong bond with, Sachi.

Another common theme throughout all the sets: none of them seemed to contain any conclusion, ripping from me all sense of closure with any of the people I suddenly remembered. I could only assume that one of the sets would be solely about my conclusions with these people. I could only _hope_ it turned out this way.

The way things were turning out so far had evolved far, far past my expectations. Argo had grown a bit less cold to the shell of a person I had become, acting almost… almost like she did in my memories of her, kind of teasing all the time, but still very kind when I needed it. I wondered if this was intentional on her part, but I quickly dismissed the thought. She didn't know how things were from my perspective, so she probably didn't realize what she was doing.

Still, Argo and I had become very close in just a few days of working together. I wanted to be around her as much as possible, if only for the calming effect her mere presence had on me.

Of course, the looming fright of school stood right around the corner. But for some reason, I didn't feel quite as scared as I did before. Maybe it was because Argo would be there, but… I also couldn't help but notice a slight change in my outlook. A change for the better.

* * *

My ride arrived at seven-forty in the morning. Due to stressing out over things, I had been awake and ready for about an hour before the black car I had been informed of pulled up in the driveway.

I almost burst from my house into the street, nerves still completely out of whack after realizing the gravity of what I was about to do. I quickly opened the door and shambled into the backseat, trembling slightly as I slammed the door shut behind me.

I looked to the side, wondering if my therapist had really done what he said he had. Lo and behold, somebody else was in the other side of the backseat. She had brownish, wavy hair that went down to her mid-back, golden-brown eyes, and an unmistakable air about her. The calming presence.

"A-Argo…san?" I stuttered out in a hushed whisper.

"We meet for the first time in real life and you call me by my in-game name instead of asking for my real one…" the calming girl grumbled slightly. "This is reality, not a game. Call me 'Alice'."

"O-okay!" I stuttered out. Despite Argo's inherent calming ability, I still found myself slightly nervous about meeting her in the real. "Alice-san."

"Drop the –san." The demands just kept increasing!

"Alice…" _Ugh, this is so embarrassing…_

"Good. And your name is?"

"K-Kirigaya Kimiko…"

I looked over to Alice nervously, wondering what she could be thinking about my name. I found a look of deep concentration on her face, as if she were trying really hard to remember something. At last, a look of remembrance dawned on her face, and she spoke.

"I think I bought a custom computer from somebody with that name a long time ago… well, that was the name of the sender when I received it in the mail…"

This reminded me of my old 'job' that I apparently had before my amnesia. Supposedly, I sold modded computer parts, and even sometimes complete custom computers, online. Although, I had used the same name as the one my ALO avatar possessed for a username, so how she connected that to my real-life name… oh, wait. She said the sender on the mail had my name… so that was probably it.

"Before GGO, I apparently sold modded computer parts online," I said with a rueful look as I remembered the complaints I received for closing the business due to memory loss. They came from people I never knew in person, but that didn't take away the sting. "So you probably did get it from me. No use asking about what I sold you now, though."

"Kimiko…" She sure transitioned to first-name basis easily, I noticed with some degree of embarrassment at my own ineptitude in doing so. Her next sentence took my mind off it, though. "I wouldn't do something like that. I wanted to be with the Kiriko of GGO, yeah. But I also want to be with the you that's here now, talking to me. So don't go thinking depressing thoughts, okay? It only makes you that much harder to cheer up."

I attempted to hide my growing embarrassment and excuse the blush forming on my face the only way I knew how: by acting like she said something ridiculous instead of something heartwarming. "That was… cheesy."

"Oh, come on!"

* * *

When we arrived at the school, the first thing I noticed was its immense size. Supposedly, there were about thirty survivor schools built around the country, which meant that each one would be the educational 'home' to about one-thousand out of the thirty-thousand kids that survived GGO. There were three types of schools: those for young kids, or the primary school students pre-GGO, those for the young teenagers, or the lower-secondary students pre-GGO, and those for the older teens, or the upper-secondary students pre-GGO. I fell into the third category along with Alice, so we both went to the same school.

Unfortunately, despite almost being the age of a third year, I had suffered from a complete and total loss of all memory due to a malfunction of the Nerve Gear, or so I was told. Therefore, it took me almost a year to relearn enough world skills to become functional again, and even then, all of my memories of stuff I learned in school pre-GGO were zapped. The guys pulling the strings weren't totally cruel, I guess, because they let me stay in upper secondary school – though just barely. I had to be a first year.

I didn't really mind too much, all things considered. Regardless of what level I went into, I would still be hounded by people who "knew" me. After all, as I learned in the past few days, I had been quite famous in GGO. I could only hope that I didn't have a panic attack from all the stress, though it certainly felt like a real possibility already.

I already felt faint without Argo–Alice's calming presence around. I tried thinking about what I would do if somebody started to demand that I remember them… and the answer I got from speculation didn't help me calm down any further.

I had been waiting for about five minutes for the class I had enrolled in to get done with morning announcements and for the teacher to call me in. They said it wouldn't take long, but for me, every second stretched into a mini-eternity of time to worry about how to act. How to _re_act if somebody recognized me.

"Kirigaya Kimiko-san, please enter." I heard the words loud and clear from the other side of the open doorway. It seemed like they finally finished.

I took a deep breath, then focused all of my mind on taking a single step forward. Then another, and another, and a few more, until I finally stood at the front-center of the class, facing all the students with a nervous expression.

As soon as I looked up into everyone's eyes, the class's reaction was instant. Recognition flared in every set of eyes my stormy-gray irises looked into. Every single one. They all "knew" me right away.

"Isn't that—"

"It's Kiriko!"

"I can't believe I'm in the same class as Kiriko now!"

"No way, this can't be real! Somebody tell me I'm dreaming!"

However, only one reaction really caught my eye. A girl in the back row, with dark hair kept from her eyes by two ribbons on either side, darker eyes that seemed so full of expression, and thick, ovoid glasses with a dark frame.

When I locked eyes with her, her set of dark irises widened to the point that you'd think we were in a manga. Her mouth nearly dropped to the floor, and mine almost did in turn, before the teacher silenced everyone with a stern voice.

"Attention, class!" he shouted above everybody else's excited clamors, silencing them in an instant. It was at this point that I looked at him for the first time. He had fairly light skin, curly brown hair, soft brown eyes, and rectangular glasses. I felt like I had seen him online somewhere, but I couldn't quite recall where. Maybe a gamer blog? But then why would he be a teacher…?

It took me a moment to register that he had started talking again. "You all remember Kirigaya-san, but she does not remember you. Due to a malfunction of her Nerve Gear shortly before she first regained consciousness, she has lost all memory of everything that ever happened to her, up until the end of the GGO incident. I would appreciate it if you didn't attempt to make her remember you – the memories simply aren't there."

Once again, the class had an excitable reaction. A bunch of "seriously?" and "you've got to be kidding!" comments arose, though I also heard a few "I'm so sorry," or other forms of sympathy mixed in with the jeers. It made me feel slightly better to know that some of the people understood the gravity of the situation.

However, one reaction once again trumped all the rest. From the same person, no less. The dark-haired, dark-eyed girl with ovoid glasses suddenly gained an fiercely hurt expression, before looking away from me entirely. As if she were deeply hurt by the fact I didn't remember her. Almost immediately, I felt a sense of dread. This came right before the reactions that sent me into panic attacks without fail.

"Settle down, class!" once again, the teacher brought everyone to attention with just a shout. "Now, Kirigaya Kimiko-san, please sit in the empty seat in the back corner over there."

I followed the point of the teacher's finger, and my eyes landed on an empty desk in the back row, right at the left corner. Unfortunately for me, the person who would be sitting next to me… was that same girl whose reactions to my arrival and status as an amnesiac had just pushed and pulled me all over.

This would be a long, anxiety-provoking school year.

* * *

Being in a corner seat, and having a next-door desk-mate who wouldn't acknowledge my presence, made things considerably harder for me. I had nobody to ask for help, because every time I looked over at the girl next to me, she seemed to be looking in the opposite direction.

But at lunch time, something rather unexpected happened. I had been prepared to eat lunch alone, but the least likely person walked up to me as soon as teach left the room.

"We need to talk," the bespectacled girl who had ignored my existence all day commanded.

"Uh, okay…" I consented, though it sounded more like a question. What could she possibly want to talk to me about? Hopefully she didn't want to try to force me to remember her… that would be very anxiety-provoking and, in the end, completely fruitless. i now knew that a good portion of my memories were data in a VRMMO, so there was no way that i could recall them without first obtaining the data.

"Let's go, then." She gave no warning before moving towards the classroom door.

So she wanted to talk with me somewhere alone… I quickly grabbed my still-packed lunch and went to follow, but not before hearing some rather strange comments from the boys of the class.

"Go for it, Sinon!"

"We want yuri!"

I, for one, didn't know what the heck this 'yuri' was. Apparently, it was something embarrassing, because the glasses-wearing girl quickly told the peanut gallery to shut up. As the class quieted down, the girl reached the door, and I almost caught up to her.

"We'll talk upstairs," she finally said, leading the way once more.

"But this is a single-story building…" though I complained about the logistics, I still followed.

As it turned out, my leader's definition of 'upstairs' meant the vacant roof of the school building. The building itself was massive for a one-story place, so its roof seemed to stretch on long enough for short-distance runners to use it as a track.

Once we arrived at about the middle of the flat, tile-styled roofing, she turned around and spoke.

"So you really don't remember anything, huh?" she went for the most direct I had ever seen someone confront me about this. Usually people hesitated, but this girl seemed unforgivingly blunt.

"Yeah, that's right," I replied as calmly as I could make myself sound. Something about this girl… something about her made me restless. Kind of nervous, but not in a way I didn't like… it was a really confusing feeling.

"Well, if that's the case, it looks like I have to start over," she said, her tone changing to be slightly less angry. I could see a hint of an emotion in her eyes… sadness, maybe? She spoke again before I could analyze it any further.

"My name is Asada Shino. In GGO, the old you knew me as, 'Sinon'. We were…"

Suddenly, I felt compelled to listen to her. The way she trailed off made me too curious, I guess. "Go on."

"Towards the end of the game, we were lovers."

_Wait, what?!_

* * *

**Author's Note**

**I seem to be doing a lot of fics where the MC starts school for the first time right now. I wonder if there's a connection. Well, I did just get back to school myself, so that might have something to do with it.**

**Anyway, just like I said, a lot of things just got complicated for poor, poor Kiriko. How will she deal with this? Well, I have an idea, but it likely won't get written for a while. I need to focus on things like Forgive – Forget = Love, GGO: SW – TB, and other, older works like SAA: Design Flaws.**

**So, if anybody can review, I'd like to ask that you do. I am in dire need of some decent constructive criticism right now. I don't improve without it, and I'm not yet at a level where I can write things I'm satisfied with all the time. So please, if you have anything I should be working on, don't hesitate to tell me in a review!**

**Well, I need to get going. Gotta find my copy of SAO: Progressive volume one so I can continue with GGO: SW – TB.**

**See you later!**


	7. I-VI: First Day - Part II, Next Dive

**Author's Note**

**So, this took a while. I know I should really get back to writing on the base story, GGO: SW – TB, but the whole thing seems like a massive pain right now. I'll return to my legacy's best version when I am good and ready, and now isn't that time.**

**Also, my poll has closed! The prevailing view was that I should try to moderate the new ideas along with the updates. I like that plan, since it gives me room to focus on both things, but still enforces some damn responsibility on myself.**

**So yeah, I'll be publishing a new fic soon, it's my second one with a neko Kimiko! This one will be KimiSinon, though, and the neko female Kirito won't have a weak constitution. The plot will be somewhat generic (but I won't reveal it yet), just with the added twist of a pair of cat ears and a tail.**

**Anyway, about this chapter! It really sets into motion the love triangle I had planned from the beginning (as in, before this fic existed, or even the idea for it), and also puts a few things into perspective, regarding Kimiko's unknown past/future in GGO: SW ****– TB****. So look forward to that. Also, a new character that never appeared in the anime is going to be introduced this chapter! Huzzah, I love this chick! I always thought her character to be really interesting from what I've read, as I more often than not do with eccentrics, but now I finally get the chance to write about SAO's number one seamstress!**

**I'll let you read now, before my rambling gets too long. Have a fun read and I'll see you at the bottom!**

* * *

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Chapter Six: First Day Part II; Next Dive

_"So you really don't remember anything, huh?" she went for the most direct I had ever seen someone confront me about this. Usually people hesitated, but this girl seemed unforgivingly blunt._

_"Yeah, that's right," I replied as calmly as I could make myself sound. Something about this girl… something about her made me restless. Kind of nervous, but not in a way I didn't like… it was a really confusing feeling._

_"Well, if that's the case, it looks like I have to start over," she said, her tone changing to be slightly less angry. I could see a hint of an emotion in her eyes… sadness, maybe? She spoke again before I could analyze it any further._

_"My name is Asada Shino. In GGO, the old you knew me as, 'Sinon'. We were…"_

_Suddenly, I felt compelled to listen to her. The way she trailed off made me too curious, I guess. "Go on."_

_"Towards the end of the game, we were lovers."_

Wait, what?!

* * *

Needless to say, I didn't quite know how to take this new information. Quite honestly, though, I had assumed that Argo had been my lover in GGO – after all, Yui called us both "Mama", and Argo had admitted to loving the old me. I had just assumed… that we had been together in that death game. But then it turned out that it was someone else entirely… what? How?

"But I… I thought…" I attempted to vocalize the thoughts rampaging around in my head. However, my disorientation did not let things go too well. "I thought that Argo was my…"

A look of understanding dawned on this girl named Asada Shino's face. She began to speak with a sort of reverence in her tone, closing her eyes. "Argo-san was your lover before we became lovers. Right before we got together, you broke up with her."

But then, an accusatory glare surfaced on her face, and I found a finger pointed at mine. "But if you don't have any memories, how do you know who Argo is? That's awfully sketchy."

I realized what she said made some sense, but I really needed to elaborate. "I-It's not like I remembered her, or something… but I started playing ALO recently and ran into her the day I first logged on. We became friends after I beat her with my GGO avatar and stats, and she's been telling me about what I used to be like, and the people I used to be with."

The look on Shino's face said she didn't think that was the full story (well, it really wasn't), but she went along with it anyway. "Okay, I get that. But you said you've been playing ALO? As in, ALfheim Online?"

"Y-yeah…" I had an idea of where this was going. I didn't exactly object, but it would likely slow my pace drastically in collecting my memories.

"Then we're going to meet up," the bespectacled girl left little room for protest. "After school, log in and fly to the Cait Sith capital. Tell the guards you're there to see Sinon, and they'll let you through."

"What, are you their leader or something?" I couldn't help but ask, tilting my head in curiosity.

"No, just their strongest warrior," she responded with a hint of pride, pounding a hand against her chest in a rather unladylike, yet still highly adorable, fashion. "I came in second at the last tournament, but only because the other guy was insane."

After lunch ended and we went back to the classroom, I kept wondering one thing, over and over. It took up my whole consciousness just to think about it, but I gladly chose that in favor of paying attention to the teacher at all. And the one question I kept asking myself over and over in different words was…

_Did I just get asked out?_

* * *

It took quite a while for me to settle down enough for some self-introspection once I got home. That girl, Shino, the one who claimed to be the lover of the old me, had me on edge the whole day. She didn't even do it intentionally; just by being around me, she instilled an unease that just wouldn't go away.

But, that sense of unease that felt like the opposite or Argo's – Alice's calm feeling… I didn't dislike it. It wasn't an unwelcome feeling. She made my heart beat faster when she got close, like the beginning of a panic attack, but it never got worse than that. I didn't… I didn't hate that feeling, for some reason. I sort of felt like… I wanted to experience it again.

And that scared me a bit. As soon as classes ended for the day, I rushed out to the car in which Argo – Alice and the driver awaited me. I didn't say a word, other than nervously tell my friend to log onto ALO when she got home so we could meet up.

After arriving home myself, I couldn't think straight. I mechanically fed Shadow, then went to my room and just stared at my Nerve Gear for several minutes. I didn't put it on; the thought made me feel a sense of apprehension, like something bad would happen if I did log on.

So I decided to just sit and think to myself for several minutes, rather than try to overcome my unsettled nerves. Try to sort out the day, I suppose. But even that took a good ten minutes, and before long, I actually wanted to log in, rather than focus on something so unsettling.

Which brings us to the present. I decided to finally slip the Nerve Gear over my head, and before long, I found myself laying down on my bed, a sense of thrilling anticipation coursing through my veins. In the next moment, I uttered the startup command, and my next dive into ALfheim Online began.

"Link Start."

* * *

"You're late, Kiriko," were the first words spoken to me right as I logged on. Due to our journeys together, plus the fact that you spawn in the same place you log out when you come back, Argo must have been waiting in the same spot for close to twenty minutes – the car took her home before me.

The actual landscape we last logged off in was a harsh desert, with mountains just to the north a bit. We were in Salamander territory, at the northern tip of their deserts, because two fragments of my memory had been located there.

Which meant that I totally made Argo wait in the hot, dry desert for twenty minutes while I just sat by myself and brooded. Wow, if that didn't make me feel like a moron… I mentally face-palmed at my own selfish stupidity.

"Sorry, just thinking about something," I lied to her face. _More like someone… but I don't know if I want to tell her that._

"Oh?" Suddenly, a teasing glint appeared in the Cait Sith's eyes, and she leaned in real close to my face. "Did you meet someone interesting at school today?"

Quite honestly, her guess left me stunned. How in the hell did she figure it out with so little to go on? I shouldn't be _that_ easy to read, should I? I backed away slightly, wondering if the whiskered girl had a mind-reading skill.

"No, you just make a lot of the same facial expressions that you did before you lost your memories," Argo answered my thoughts as if it were normal to be able to read someone like an open book. She closed in again, a teasing smirk her dominating facial feature, rather than the whiskers. "If anything, you've become easier to read now. You don't have as many walls as you did back then, that's for sure."

I felt my face heat up at the minimal distance between us, and I backed away sharply, tossing my gaze down to my breast pocket. "Y-Yui!" I called, watching as the lump in the pocket moved upwards until I was greeted by my tiny pixie daughter.

"Good afternoon, Mama!" she cheerfully greeted me, oblivious to the turmoil going on inside me right at that moment. "Which fragments are we going to get today?"

Finally, I had ammo to change the subject away from Argo's teasing. I remembered promising to meet Shino-san in ALO earlier today, but that could wait a little bit. "About that…" I spoke, the blush leaving my face as my focus left the tease of a Cait Sith in front of me. "Can you locate any fragments near the Cait Sith capital?"

"There are two in that general area," Yui replied without more than a second of hesitation. «Navigation Pixies» were really useful, it seemed. "One on the peninsula, just outside the castle, and one closer to the mountains at the center of ALO's map."

"We'll go for the one outside the castle first," I decided, knowing full well that the girl I met in school would probably be pissed at me for being late, just as Argo was.

"Oh, no, you don't," Argo interrupted our conversation for the first time, pulling my shoulder towards the mountains just north of us. "Today, we're finally getting you some good gear in the old capital, so the Cait Sith capital will have to wait until after we do that."

It occurred to me then that I still hadn't gotten any better equipment than my starting set. And I had planned to meet up with the top Cait Sith warrior with this…? How stupid was I? What if she wanted to fight me at some point? She probably had way better gear than I did, and she's undoubtedly kick my ass to the moon and back, even if I did have a lot of powerful stats.

"All right, let's get some gear, then," I relented, slumping my shoulders a mite dramatically. "But after that, we go to the Cait Sith capital, all right? I have to meet someone there."

The journey to our next destination was filled with a lot of grilling (with unsuccessful results) about who I needed to meet.

* * *

Our high-speed flight involved backtracking into Sylph territory, where the first two memory fragments I obtained were, and then entering a cave that Argo told me was called the «Legrue Corridor». From there, where flight was restricted, it became a footrace full of one-slash kills of monsters in our way, before we arrived at an underground city.

My Cait Sith companion told me that it was a neutral mining city called «Legrue», and said that she knew a master blacksmith here, along with a few other useful player merchants. The smirk on her face didn't go unnoticed by me, but I dismissed it as a teasing idea she came up with as we walked into the town.

The city itself was actually built on top of a small island in the middle of a huge underground lake within the cave. The island connected itself to the main caves via two bridges, but in the lake water below, a lot of high-level aquatic mobs would show themselves just beneath the surface. Even to me, with all my maxed stats and skills, the mobs' cursor color was a slightly dark red, which I had discovered was a direct link to how hard they'd be to fight. The darker red the cursor, the harder the battle, and these things all seemed to be pretty hard to kill, even for me. No way would I be swimming in that lake anytime soon.

The buildings of the city were all one to two stories tall, and had either a circular shape for the small ones, or an octagonal shape for the larger ones. They all had a brownish yellow color to them, with the only exception being the occasional sign of a business.

As we neared the center of the city, I noticed the signs for businesses increasing in number. It seemed almost every building was a shop or restaurant of some sort. But before the 'almost' had to be retracted, Argo took a sharp left turn, and as I followed, she led me into a quieter part of town.

The area we arrived at ten seconds later seemed to be a park of sorts, with a lot of wide open space and benches with players of all races sitting on them. Only one building actually took up any space near here, being a small business-sized one off to the far left side of all the open space.

That same building must have been our destination, I quickly realized as Argo made a beeline for it. It didn't look like a blacksmith shop… in fact, it looked like a store selling clothing. More specifically, non-metal clothing that was meant for battle. At least, that's the impression the displays in the windows gave off.

When we arrived at the front door, Argo turned back to face me. "Before we hit the smith shop, I figured we'd best get you some lightweight defensive gear," she explained to me, putting my growing anxiety to rest. Then she donned a smirk as she began explaining something else. "The one who runs this shop is the best seamstress in the game, but she's a tad eccentric. She only picks up interesting jobs, but you don't have to worry about getting accepted."

"Why not?" I wondered aloud, not really asking Argo, but still not really talking to myself.

"Because she's already made your equipment for you three times," my Cait Sith companion answered my question with an ever-widening smirk. "And I'm pretty sure Yui will remember her, too."

Oh. Oh, no. now I finally understood why Argo had such a devious smirk on her face. She wanted me to meet up with yet another person I knew from the game I lost my memories in. my face paled, my eyes widened and I began to visibly shake. This would be a repeat of every other time, everyone would abandon me, and—

I felt a hand grasp mine firmly, intertwining its fingers with my own. I looked up and saw a new side of Argo, one that seemed deeply caring and kind… almost like a mother, but not quite. It was a side I knew about from the memories I received of her, but also one I had yet to experience as my current amnesiac self. It made everything seem like it'd turn out just fine.

"Hey, don't freak out by yourself, okay?" she spoke in a tone more gentle than I'd ever heard of anyone before, giving my hand a subtle squeeze. "No matter what happens, I'll be here for you, you know?"

"Me too, Mama!" Yui piped up from her spot inside my pocket.

I took a deep breath. The danger of a panic attack happening had been reduced to nothing, now I just had normal nerves to calm. I spoke once I gathered the strength to do so. "Thanks… both of you."

Probably not the most eloquent of responses to such a heartfelt statement as, 'I'll always be here for you,' but it was all I could manage at the time. After regaining my nerves, I knocked on the door myself with my free hand, and Argo slowly let go of my other one.

Just as her hand returned to her own side, the door opened, revealing a tall, blonde woman with red-dyed highlights and a considerable amount of makeup for an adventure VRMMO title. She wore a red leather coat with black trim and white fur lining over some basic leather armor that looked to be of the highest quality.

She took one look at the both of us, and her whole demeanor changed. She had initially opened the door with little attempt to hide her disinterest, the look of not wanting to deal with it as plain as day on her face. But the moment she saw who her customers were, that whole notion shattered, and she became a well of bubbly smiles, this time not bothering to hide her complete glee. Finally, after two seconds of sizing us up with an unbridled expression of pure joy, she spoke in a light, airy voice that reminded me of wind chimes.

"Why, Argo, it's been months! And look at who you've brought! I had no idea my most interesting customer in GGO even played this game!"

* * *

**Author's Note**

**So, what a bombshell for the shopkeeper to unwittingly drop on out mentally unstable amnesiac protagonist. I had a lot of fun towards the end there as I began to fathom writing someone more eccentric than I write Argo to be… and this is the result. More on that next chapter, where Kimiko gets a brand new wardrobe for her 'date' with Sinon!**

**By the way, anybody liking the love triangle I set up? Just so you know, the original GGO: SW was intended to turn out as the same triangle, pairing-wise. I totally hinted at it there before any actual romance bloomed, but here, it just comes right into the focus, due to the setup. Also, that is still the plan for GGO: SW – TB, but with the inclusion of Sachi, who got time-skipped in the original, even though she's the reason Kiriko is alive today, in a lot of ways. Sachi's the reason Kiriko decided to win the BoB in the original GGO: SW, despite the impending repercussions, if that doesn't hint at it enough.**

**Okay, with the annoying formalities out of the way, please review this, guys! I realize it may be asking a lot for some of you, but I really need some critique right now. My growth as a writer as of late has been stagnant, and I really need somebody to tell me what I'm doing right, and what needs work, or I'll take forever to improve. Hell, I'd even go for demonsshade's brutally honest blasting at this point. After all, his reviews, particularly the last few, are the force behind my most recent evolution as a writer, which in itself happened almost a year ago.**

**So yeah, please review and stuff. I don't even care if it's a blast, so long as it's a constructive one.**

**See you next chapter!**


	8. I-VII: New Clothes Beat All

**Author's Note**

**This chapter is a bit short, at least compared to what I've been putting out recently. Once I got close to the end, I hit a slump of sorts. Everything I wrote after a certain point degenerated further and further, so I decided to make a stopping point, and it ended at 2500 words.**

**So, Kiriko gets some new gear in this chapter to replace her starter gear. Gonna have some fun with that, because I totally feel like making Kiriko wear something she's uncomfortable in. Huzzah for the writer's sort of pervy whims!**

**Anyway, I don't have much to say, so I'll let you read for now.**

* * *

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Chapter Seven: New Clothes Beat All

* * *

_I took a deep breath. The danger of a panic attack happening had been reduced to nothing, now I just had normal nerves to calm. I spoke once I gathered the strength to do so. "Thanks… both of you."_

_Probably not the most eloquent of responses to such a heartfelt statement as, 'I'll always be here for you,' but it was all I could manage at the time. After regaining my nerves, I knocked on the door myself with my free hand, and Argo slowly let go of my other one._

_Just as her hand returned to her own side, the door opened, revealing a tall, blonde woman with red-dyed highlights and a considerable amount of makeup for an adventure VRMMO title. She wore a red leather coat with black trim and white fur lining over some basic leather armor that looked to be of the highest quality._

_She took one look at the both of us, and her whole demeanor changed. She had initially opened the door with little attempt to hide her disinterest, the look of not wanting to deal with it as plain as day on her face. But the moment she saw who her customers were, that whole notion shattered, and she became a well of bubbly smiles, this time not bothering to hide her complete glee. Finally, after two seconds of sizing us up with an unbridled expression of pure joy, she spoke in a light, airy voice that reminded me of wind chimes._

_"Why, Argo, it's been months! And look at who you've brought! I had no idea my most interesting customer in GGO even played this game!"_

* * *

Before I even had a chance to freak out, I felt a hand grasp my right gently and knew that Argo took it again. Her calming effect (I swear, she must have had a calming AoE skill or something) took its hold on me, and I began to speak.

"I just started playing recently, so I've been having Argo show me around," I elaborated on the situation without going into sensitive topics, something I had grown quite accustomed to doing in the past year. "She said I should get some lightweight battle equipment today, so here we are."

"Well, you've come to the right place!" the wind chime-like voice of the blonde shopkeeper rang out loud and clear – it looked like I needn't have worried at all about being accepted, just as Argo had said. "You're always welcome here!"

As we were quickly ushered into the shop itself, Argo decided to speak up, all the while still holding my hand gently. "Thanks a million, Ashley," she said as we walked with the woman. The shopkeeper herself probably didn't realize it, but that line was actually directed at me. Argo intentionally mentioned the blonde's apparent name so that I'd be able to better play along as if I knew her. "So, I was thinking another Devil Draco's leather set would suit – oh, right. Not in ALO."

This was the first time I'd heard anything from Argo that wasn't accurate. She seemed to be the informant type player, rather than a battler, and she'd never said anything about the game that she had to retract for any reason. She must have been talking about what I last wore in GGO, though it was only a hunch.

"Not to worry, Argo," Ashley spared my companion a glance as she led us to an area that looked suspiciously like a dressing room. "There happens to be an equivalent monster in this game, though I have other ideas for what to use. I'm assuming you still want dark colors, no?"

The last question was more or less directed at me. I just nodded dumbly in response, internally wondering just how long I'd liked black clothing for. Obviously, since GGO, if not before it, but I couldn't be sure of exactly when. Then again, my first clothing in my GGO memories from the fragments were a dark gray, rather than black, so it must have started after GGO began its official service.

"Okay then, we'll use some «Phantasmal Lord's Leather» for the main parts, «Hardened Quicksilver» for the trim, and an «Ares Crown» for the metal parts," the master tailor listed off a bunch of really rare-sounding materials without batting an eyelash. Did she work with that kind of stuff for everyone? And if so, how did she even get it all?

Just in case this was a normal thing for her, I decided to just play along without acting as surprised as I felt. However, before I spoke, Argo beat me to it, revealing just how badly I would have screwed up if I followed my own plan.

"«Phantasmal Lord's Leather»?!" she exclaimed, showing the most emotion I had seen from her since we first battled. "But that leather is supposed to be incredibly rare and imbued with unique magic that changes with each harvest from the boss you get it from! How did you even get that?!"

"A really strong Salamander that used a katana brought it in for me the other day," she responded to Argo's shock with a cool demeanor that made her seem like the voice of reason in this picture. "He said he couldn't use it for anything, so he'd give it to the only tailor he knew of who would be skilled enough to sew with it."

The look in Ashley's eyes told a slightly different story – rather, the look said that that wasn't all to the story she told us. But she didn't seem to want to mention the rest, so neither Argo nor myself decided to pry.

The result, rather predictably, was an awkward silence. The room fell quiet as Argo seemed to be calculating just how much money's worth of materials would be going into my new outfit, and I myself began to wonder about the full story.

"Okay then…" I decided that the silence had to be broken one way or another. If this did it, then I didn't mind a slight subject change. "If you're okay with using such rare materials on me, I won't object."

"Great!" and with that call, the creation of my new gear began.

* * *

"I don't know about this…" rather predictably, these were my first words on my new ensemble. In the dressing room, I stood as I tried it on, but looking at it in the mirror across from me only solidified my opinion: it was too skimpy. "The skirt is way too short. It barely even goes halfway past my thighs…"

"You always have the same complaints, don't you?" came Ashley's wind chime voice from the other side of the closed door. She completely dismissed my problem and presented me with a brand new one to think about. "Don't get so worked up about it. In a game where flying in the air with your body is the main form of transportation, there's no way to avoid flashing people at some point. You'll just have to get used to it, dear."

Of course, I hadn't once thought about that before then, and it made my face's color spontaneously combust just to think about it. After all, whenever we flew, Argo was always right behind me, rather than next to me. Did that mean she had full view of my… I can't say it… when we traveled?

Rather predictably, the next thing to be spoken aloud indirectly confirmed my suspicions. Argo gave herself away with this line: "Ooh, you put her in a mini-skirt? I want to see! I definitely gotta see this!"

I didn't know whether I wanted to go out there and slap her or not, because if I did, I'd give her exactly what she wanted right before I hit her. So instead, I settled for a warning. "Argo! You will never fly behind me again!"

"Aw, come on!" and there went the direct confirmation of what I had feared and suspected.

"Never again!"

Although I complained about the skirt, it wasn't the only thing that needed to be mentioned. The black shirt under my matching cargo jacket was of the strapless variety, showing off the straps of my black bra to everyone if I didn't wear my jacket. The shirt clung to my figure low enough that it actually left a medium degree of cleavage visible, even with the metal breast plate I wore in between the shirt and jacket.

The gleaming silver breast plate was actually the biggest piece of metal in my new ensemble. My new combat boots had metal accents as well that shined the same silver color, and my jacket had a matching silver zipper, along with silver trim on the ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the torso.

Combined with the black mini-skirt, this made the most revealing outfit I had ever worn. I would have flat-out rejected everything if it weren't for the amazing stats and effects in each individual item.

For example, the shirt and jacket, both made from the «Phantasmal Lord's Leather», each had an additional special effect of «Auto Evade chance +25%», which both stacked to create a chance of 50% for attacks to phase right through me. Combine that with good defense stats, a high bonus to Strength, and even a high bonus to Agility, and they were top tier for a fast, offensively-styled player such as myself.

The breast plate, made from the «Crown of Ares», gave both debuff protection and a boost to both defense and raw attack power, plus a high boost to Strength. Additionally, the «Hardened Quicksilver» used for the trim and accents of almost every part of my ensemble gave a boost to Agility on everything it was used for.

The fingerless, black leather gloves that were thrown in at the last minute were made from the leather of a demonic mob that could wield two swords at once. Thus, having gloves made from such a dexterous opponent's materials actually gave a solidly high boost to Dexterity, which helped with flight control at high speeds.

And finally, my black combat boots with metal accents that had wing designs engraved in them gave a decent boost to defense, but their main asset was actually a special effect of «Flying Speed +20%», though the boost to Agility also helped assert their worth.

Unfortunately, I probably couldn't get better equipment for myself anywhere. Which meant that I would just have to deal with the fact that the aesthetics were way too revealing for my tastes.

But the mini-skirt didn't really do much other than give a decent boost to defense. That's why, out of everything I could've picked to complain about, I chose the least useful piece of equipment, which happened to be the skirt.

After about three minutes overall of hiding myself, I decided I couldn't just stay in the dressing room forever. Argo had been getting impatient, and I still had to pay the one who made the clothes for me.

Finally, I opened the door to the dressing room and stepped out, pulling my jacket tighter over my revealing shirt and breast plate. In the next three seconds both of them reacted on polar opposite ends of the spectrum.

"Why, you look gorgeous!" came Ashley's reassurance, though it didn't help ease my anxiety much. "You still have that natural beauty that's so hard to come by these days!"

However, the seamstress and metal-worker's reaction had nothing on Argo's. The whisker-cheeked Cait Sith's ears twitched and her tail went high into the air as her visage turned completely mesmerized. She even drooled a bit, embarrassingly enough, and suddenly I felt like her gaze wasn't just one of enthrallment – it had a hint of _hunger_ to it as well.

Frankly, it unsettled me a bit. This complete change in demeanor was unnerving, even though I had a good idea of why it came about. After all, she said she loved the old me, and Shino said we had once been lovers. Well, even if my personality had changed after my amnesia, my body in this world was the exact same body that she had been attracted to. So even if the emotional attraction was gone, the physical attraction was likely still there on some level for Argo.

It wasn't as if Argo herself was particularly unattractive. Far from it, in fact; she had a catlike cuteness and mischievous nature that only intensified with the ears and tail. She may have had the moniker of the «Rat» in GGO, but here, she seemed much, much more like a playful, adorable cat.

Although I couldn't deny that I was attracted to Argo to some degree, it still unnerved me to see her have such a hungry, almost lustful gaze when looking at me. I didn't know whether it was something to get mad about, something to be flattered about, or something incredibly embarrassing. Rather than calming, the effect she usually had on me, this kind of attitude made my heart race and my face heat up.

"Argo…" I decided to mask my insecurity about this revelation by teasing her about it. "I know you're ogling me right now. The drool is a dead giveaway."

That did the trick, and she looked away, a furious red color decorating her whiskered cheeks. "I-it's not right to have you teasing me…" she mumbled as she continued averting her eyes.

I ignored her flustered response for the moment as I turned to Ashley, giving her a wary look. This would probably cost a lot. "How much do I owe you?"

"Oh, don't worry about it!" she replied instantly, startling me a bit with her warm smile. "Consider it a 'welcome to ALO' gift. After all, I'm sure you'll be back eventually for more anyway."

I didn't want to admit it, but she was definitely right. If I ever needed better equipment for whatever reason, I'd definitely come to her for it. The stats were top tier, even if the actual appearance seemed skimpy.

"Well then, thanks," I told her, extending a hand. She took it, and we shook for a moment before letting go. I then turned to Argo, who had more or less calmed down by then. "Well, where are we headed next, tour guide?"

My Cait Sith companion's ears twitched, and she put a hand to her chin. "Before you go to the Cait Sith capital, we need to get you a new weapon. There's a master blacksmith that lives here, in another part of town, so we'll do that here."

"Gotcha," I replied, before turning back to Ashley. "Well, we're off. Thanks again for the new gear."

"Don't mention it, dears," the blonde tailor told us with a wave. "And Kiriko, Argo."

We both looked at her, wondering what she would say. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but before long, she gave us a warm smile, and said the boldest thing she'd said all day. And considering her personality, that was saying something.

"I'm glad you two are a together again. You make a better couple than Kiriko and the blue-haired girl."

_Blue-haired girl? Just how many people have I gone out with?!_

* * *

**Author's Note**

**Kiriko's last mental commentary makes perfect sense if you think about it. She hasn't seen Sinon's game avatar yet, nor has she obtained the memory fragment for Sinon, so she doesn't know that the sniper dyed her hair blue in-game. Thus, she now thinks she's dated three people pre-amnesia, since Sinon in real life has blackish hair.**

**Anyway, hip, hip, hooray for overpowered skimpy equipment! Kiriko has a half chance of attacks phasing through her body even if she doesn't dodge. That's some OP bullshit right there, but I like to call it endgame equipment. The irony of it is that the amount of skin that shows in her new outfit would make you wonder how it classified as defensive equipment in the first place.**

**Anyway, I think the next thing to get an update will be GGO SW TB, since that's the only one of the quadrilogy of Swordswoman fanfics (there is an unpublished fic that takes place between TB and this one that will explain Kiriko's memory loss and Sugou's lack of involvement in ALO) that hasn't updated in the past few days. Though it might be a new story entirely, which I'll explain below.**

**See, recently, I got this thought in my head. **_**Shoot to Thrill, Swing to Kill**_** really had terrible pacing for the development of relationships. Seriously, everything moved way too fast in the first several chapters. They go from perfect strangers to close friends in just two freaking days. Not realistic at all, though the problem sort of rectified in later chapters. Sort of.**

**So I thought of trying to rewrite it, but with a more realistic flow for the development of Kimiko and Shino's relationship. I'm still toying around with how I'd do it, so I'm not sure if it'll get published anytime soon, but it's a possibility that I might do it in the near future. If I do, the rewrite would contain both Shoot to Thrill and Forgive Minus Forget Equals Love, because both stories are part of the same plot, so it would make sense for the rewrite to include both.**

**So yeah, that might come out soon, too. Just depends on if I can get myself to reread Shoot to Thrill enough to rewrite it anytime soon.**

**Well, that's enough rambling. This note is getting too long. I'll just let you go for now.**

**See you next chapter!**


	9. II-I: New Weapons, Old Feelings

**Author's Note**

**So I originally thought this would take a lot longer than it did. I thought I wouldn't be done until late December or early January. But then, while writing chapter two of Sword Art Online: The Strongest Warrior, I referenced something that I figured could happen in this fic. However, because it hasn't been written yet, I realized I had to write out what SAO TSW was referencing before I published the next chapter and referenced it.**

**Thus, this chapter came into being. I figured out how to begin that event and the start of the next major arc in the story, which is what happens in this chapter. This arc that starts this chapter is all about confusion for our protagonist. I won't say anything more on the subject for fear of giving you spoilers.**

**Anyway, that's enough out of me. I'll let you read now. See you at the bottom!**

* * *

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Arc Two, Chapter One: New Weapons, Old Feelings

* * *

_My Cait Sith companion's ears twitched, and she put a hand to her chin. "Before you go to the Cait Sith capital, we need to get you a new weapon. There's a master blacksmith that lives here, in another part of town, so we'll do that here."_

_"Gotcha," I replied, before turning back to Ashley. "Well, we're off. Thanks again for the new gear."_

_"Don't mention it, dears," the blonde tailor told us with a wave. "And Kiriko, Argo."_

_We both looked at her, wondering what she would say. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but before long, she gave us a warm smile, and said the boldest thing she'd said all day. And considering her personality, that was saying something._

_"I'm glad you two are a together again. You make a better couple than Kiriko and the blue-haired girl."_

Blue-haired girl? Just how many people have I gone out with?!

* * *

Not ten seconds after we left Ashley's tailor shop, I turned to Argo with a look of grave severity. "Okay, be serious with me, Argo. Just how many people have I gone out with?"

She looked at me quizzically, as if wondering where the question came from. "Why are you asking me that?" she queried as if it were completely pointless.

"Because during lunch today," I began, looking to the side. "Some black-haired girl with glasses made us go up to the roof alone. She told me her name was Sinon in-game, and that we were together."

"Oh, now it makes sense," my whiskered companion donned a look of sage understanding. "So you're freaking out because it seems like you went out with two people."

"That's… not all she said," I decided to spill everything, though I knew I'd probably regret it. "She also said that before I got together with her… you and I were… like that, too. I don't have memories of that, so… was it true?"

"Damn you, Sii-chan…" I heard Argo mutter under her breath. "You always have to show up and change everything at once, don't you…"

Frankly, I had no idea what any of this meant. I merely stayed silent, hoping that my whiskered companion would say something to clear up the confusion I felt. Finally, just as I was about to give up and ask again, she spoke, though she didn't say what I expected.

"After school tomorrow, come to my place instead of going home. I'll explain everything there."

"O-okay…"

With that, we began walking again, with Argo taking the lead and me following close behind. As we walked to our next destination, I couldn't help but feel like tomorrow would bring a lot more than a simple explanation.

* * *

About ten minutes later, we found ourselves in front of another shop. This one had a sign hanging out front of the brick building that read a name in big, easy to read font:

_Lisbeth's Smithy_

"What's a smithy?" I asked Argo, confused to an astounding degree about the word.

"It's a blacksmith shop," my companion elaborated, though her use of more foreign words only confused me further. Noticing the perplexed expression still on my face, the whiskered claw-user spoke again. "Basically, a blacksmith creates weapons and heavy metal armor. This one is known as the best in the business. Both her skill level and her luck are the absolute highest you'll find in all of ALO."

"So that means she'll be expensive, right?" I couldn't help but imagine my funds taking a serious plunge during this particular outing.

"Normally, it depends on what kind of materials you give her to work with," Argo explained the process a little before giving me a devious smirk. "But because it's you, I get the feeling she'll do the same thing Ashley did."

"So it's another person who knows me, huh?" I felt a bead of sweat run down the side of my face, though not from nervousness. Instead, it was because I realized that my companion deliberately chose people the old me knew.

_Is she trying to test my amnesia or something?_

"You got it!" the whiskered girl said before opening the door in front of us.

The sound of bells jingling made its way to my ear as the door swung open effortlessly. Argo walked in and I followed suit, only to find… no one there.

The room itself looked to be stocked to the brim with weapons of every variety, some of which hung on the gray brick walls, and some of which rested on pedestals in and on the various glass display cases that populated the sides of the room. At the back of the store, a closed, brown wooden door stood out as the only part of the room not gray or clear.

However, not a single person seemed to be there to greet us. I wondered if maybe the smith was out, but Argo, completely disregarding the concept of privacy, walked around the display case and straight up to the other door. Just as I closed the front door, Argo opened the back one and called out in a perky voice.

"Liz, it's Argo! I brought a customer!"

"I'll be up in a minute!" a light, somewhat pubescent voice called out from the other side.

"Hurry it up, you're going to want to see who it is!" Argo shouted back.

"Who could possibly make you impatient? This is quite the annoying mystery!" the other voice responded without missing a beat.

"You'll see when you get up here, now move it!"

I could only listen to the exchange with moderate interest. Argo seemed to be hyping me up quite a bit to this person, which made me wonder just how we knew each other before I lost my memories.

I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the doorway, coming from beyond and below it. There must have been stairs on the way or something, I belatedly realized. Just as Argo retracted herself from the doorway, another figure appeared to take her spot.

This player, another girl, seemed to be about my age, maybe a little older. She had short, pink hair that came down to her neck in the back. Her bangs ended just above her deep blue eyes, which were widened in shock as they stared straight at me. Her clothing consisted of a red, long-sleeved shirt with white and gold trim, as well as a silver chest plate. She also wore a red pleated skirt that brought a school uniform to mind.

Her figure seemed decent, though my own curves in real life were more pronounced after my body started getting proper nutrients. After looking her over, I met her shocked gaze with a blank stare.

"Uh, hi," I said with a small wave of my right hand. She didn't seem to register the gesture, until finally…

"Shorty!" the pink-haired girl shouted as she crossed the room in a single second. She enveloped me in a bone-crushing hug, squeezing me hard enough that if we weren't in a safe zone, I would probably lose some HP.

Before my nerves could get the better of me, a stiff "Ahem" came from the other side of the room. Argo stood there, clearly trying to hold back a smirk as she watched the display of affection between this stranger and me.

"Something you might want to know before hugging her half to death," my whiskered partner told the pinkette, whose bear hug had loosened so she could look over at the speaker. "Is that she doesn't remember you. You pretty much just hugged a complete stranger out of the blue."

"What?" the arms loosened their hold on me enough for me to slip out of her grasp entirely. She looked back to me as she continued. "If that's a joke, it's not funny."

"Sorry to disappoint you," I said with a wry smile, shaking my head. "But this isn't a joke. When I woke up about a year ago, all of my memories, from the day I was born until right when I awakened… were gone."

"So… you don't remember me…"

The look of pain on this girl's face hurt me just as much. Even though I hadn't a clue who she was, it still made me feel bad to see people hurting because of me. Suddenly, I felt a strong urge to just run away, to save both of us the agony of having to interact with each other, but before I could—

"Liz-san!" a tiny voice squeaked from my jacket pocket. Both of us looked to the spot just as Yui flew out of it, drawing our eyes to her. "Mama may not remember you now, but she will soon! Her memories are in this world as data, and she's trying to get them all back!"

"Is that… Yui-chan?" the pinkette called Liz asked, flabbergasted at my daughter's sudden appearance. "Why are you so small?"

"Apparently she became a «Navigation Pixie» after materializing in this world," Argo piped up from her spot by the back door. "It helps us with finding Kiriko's memory fragments, so we keep her like that."

"Sorry, this is a lot to take in…" Liz muttered, putting a hand to her head. With one eye covered, she continued speaking. "Why is it that you came here again?"

"Until today, I basically just had my starter equipment to work with," I explained, happy for the chance to talk business. "We just got me new defensive gear, and then Argo told me that we'd get my weapons from a master crafter, then brought me here. I didn't know until the last minute that you knew my past self. Sorry, I know it probably hurts that I don't remember you…"

Something seemed to flash through the pink-haired blacksmith's mind for a moment, before she did something most unexpected – as the brought her hand down, she smiled at me. It looked kind of forced, but it was a smile, clear as day. "What the heck are you saying? Don't be sorry, just hurry up and find the memory fragment with me in it! Then we can have a real reunion instead of this depression fest."

My eyes widened at the kind gesture – nobody had ever reacted so well before. "Y-yeah…" I stuttered out, feeling like I was treading unfamiliar waters.

My whiskered friend chose that moment to speak up again. "And to do that, she's gonna need some top-tier weapons. That's why we came to the best and luckiest blacksmith in the business."

"Well, you've come to the right place!" Liz said, turning to walk back to the door where Argo stood. Just as she passed my whiskered friend, she spoke again. "Follow me and we'll get down to business."

Both Argo and I filed behind her, walking through the doorway and down a ramp. As we walked, my partner mentioned something I probably should have thought of myself. "By the way, what are we gonna do about materials? I know you usually have customers bring their own, but Kiriko's a newb at this game and my materials are more speed-based than power-based."

The pink-haired blacksmith turned back to us and gave us a reassuring smile. "Actually, believe it or not, someone already covered that. A couple days ago, a certain katana-wielding Salamander came and gave me a bunch of top-level materials. He said an old friend had joined the game recently, and that when they came to me, I should use the materials to make them new weapons."

_"A really strong Salamander that used a katana brought it in for me the other day."_

Ashley's words flashed through my head the moment I heard Liz mention the 'katana-wielding Salamander'. Somehow, I knew that they were the same person. I couldn't quite explain how I knew, but I just did.

"You make it sound like I should know him," Argo said with a hint of confusion. "But I don't know any Salamanders besides Eugene, and I only know _of_ him."

As we reached the bottom of the ramp, Liz turned around completely to face us. She smirked in a way I thought only Argo was capable of, then said, "That's because you knew him before he joined ALO. Does the name «Crimson Guns» ring a bell to you?"

"Don't tell me…" my whiskered partner muttered, a look of disbelief etched into her features. "It's Klein, isn't it?"

"You got it!"

The latter part of this exchange left me very confused. "Who's Klein?" I couldn't help but ask, watching as Lisbeth's face became conflicted and Argo's turned business-like.

"Klein is the first person you met in GGO's official launch," my whiskered friend explained, her tone and face as emotionless as possible. "You taught him how to play before Kayaba's tutorial. After the sixteenth checkpoint clear, you started living with him at his legion base. He was a good guy, and though he could be a bit perverted, you never found out because he was always chivalrous around you."

I took in this new information with a blank stare. From what he had done and what Argo said, this Klein person seemed to be a good guy. But that didn't change the fact that I had no memory of him at the moment. It only made me want to gather the memory fragments even faster.

"Well, let's get started on making your weapons!" Liz interrupted my thoughts with a cheerful call.

With that, we began the process of making me new weapons.

* * *

After making my first weapon, a top-tier one-handed sword, Liz actually forced both Argo and myself to leave the forge and go back up to the front of the store. She told us the second weapon would be a surprise, and that I should go ahead and look at the stats of my new sword while we waited. So I did. I pulled up my menu, tabbed over to the equipment section and looked at my equipped weapon, my new sword.

_[One-handed Sword] Galaxy Breaker +0_

_Range: Short | Type: Slash_

_Attack: 850-970 | Durability: 1300/1300_

_Weight: 160 | Equip Requirement: One-handed Sword Skill 900_

_AGI + 44, STR + 70_

_Special Effect: Attack Speed x1.3_

After looking at the equip requirements, I found myself quite fortunate that one of the weapons I apparently used in GGO became the basis for the one-handed sword in ALO. In Gun Gale, the photon sword skill seemed to be rarely used, but I had apparently used it to great effect, to the point that my skill level maxed out. When GGO's system was copied to create the basis for ALO, they apparently used the coding for photon swords as the coding for one-handed swords, which meant that my one-handed sword proficiency in this game was at the maximum level.

I drew my new sword from the scabbard at my waist, holding it out in front of me in my right hand. Its black blade seemed to radiate a darkness that cast a shadow on darkness itself, as if it were a black hole drawing in all light around it. At the base of the blade, in between the jagged, spiked cross guard, a white and silver spiral design quite similar to a galaxy resided.

It had to be one of the most powerful blades in the game. Not just because of its stats, but also because of the equip requirement. If it weren't for my nerve gear's local memory, I definitely wouldn't even be able to hold this sword a centimeter off the ground, much less equip it.

The door to the forge opened, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned to find Liz, one hand on the door knob, and another holding something behind her back. She had a gleeful smile on her face.

"This one turned out really well!" she exclaimed, running up to me. "Hold out your hand!"

I sheathed my sword and held out my right hand in wait. She quickly placed a very non-medieval item in my outstretched palm, and I marveled at the familiarity. This weapon…

It was a gun. There was no mistaking it for anything else, this weapon was a handgun, through and through.

"How is this even possible…?" I murmured, shock keeping me immobile. "This… this doesn't…"

"In a recent update patch," Liz began, making me look up and meet her eyes. "They added a new weapon type, «Spell Shooter». This device basically acts as a shortcut system for spells, so that you don't have to chant their words of power to use them. Which spells can be equipped to the shooter depend on your skill level and the quality of the weapon, and most of them can only have one or two spells equipped at a time. But with this one—"

The blacksmith ran her index finger over a particular part of the side of the black metal handgun. A several centimeters long indent with curved ends. On the end of the indent closest to the grip, an ovoid bump protruded out from the rest of the weapon. When her finger reached the bump, she continued her explanation.

"You can load up to four spells into it," she said, tapping the bump. "This gun has two modes, each one with two spell slots. By flipping this switch, you change modes. One mode is for support spells like buffs or healing, and the other is for spells that deal damage. Right now, it's in damage mode."

Looking the sleek, black gun over again, I noticed for the first time that it had two triggers side by side. With Liz's explanation, I now realized that each trigger probably corresponded to a certain spell slot. And by flipping the switch, the spells assigned to each trigger would change.

"Wow…" I murmured, still in shock at seeing a gun in a fantasy VRMMO based in times before they existed. "This is amazing. Thanks, Liz."

"Don't thank me," she told me off with a happy smile. "Just hurry up and get your memories of me back so we can have a real reunion. We'll hold off on discussing your payment for your new weapons until then, too."

After a few more episodes of giving thanks and a lighthearted farewell, Argo and I left the shop and the town, heading for the Cait Sith capital.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**In case you didn't figure it out yet, the event that I was talking about in the top author note was Kimiko's visit to Argo's house IRL. Since that's going to happen in the tomorrow of this fic now, I figured it'd be appropriate to label the chapter that sets it up the beginning of arc 2.**

**Which means that this story has actually entered its second phase! I'm glad it finally happened, all things considered. It took me a few months, but I actually entered arc two of this story! The next fic to enter arc two in terms of chapter closeness is GGO: SW – TB, for those of you curious.**

**Moving on, the stats I used for the new sword, for those wondering, were based off of two things: one was the format used in appraisals of items in SAO's canon, and the other was the relative stats of rank 9 one-handed swords in Sword Art Online: Lost Song, which I've had for almost a year now. Though my first version was the Japanese version, I also have the PS4 UK English version now.**

**Anyway, I think I'm about done. Time to start working on chapter nine, or chapter two of arc two. I'm going to renumber all the chapters accordingly as well, with the arc number appearing before the chapter number.**


End file.
